SATURDAY   BIRD  CLASS  , 


\RGARET 
MILLER 


D.   C.    HEATH    &    CO.MP 


MY  SATURDAY  BIRD  CLASS 


BY 

MARGAEET   MILLER 


BOSTON,  U.S.A. 

PUBLISHED  BY  D.   C.    HEATH   &  CO. 
1893 


a 
M 


COPYRIGHT,  1893, 
BY  MARGARET   MILLER. 


EDUCATION 


IBrcss : 

J.  S.  Gushing  &  Co.  — Berwick  &  Smith. 
Boston,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


PEEFACB. 


IT  is  with  the  wish  that  the  experiences  related  may 
inspire  others  to  try  the  plan  outlined  in  these  pages  of 
interesting  children  in  the  study  of  nature,  that  this  jour- 
nal of  My  Saturday  Bird  Class  is  published.  What  more 
delightful  combination  for  the  teacher  can  there  be  than 
summer,  birds,  and  children  ? 

With  the  exception  of  Chapter  VI.,  "Billy  Wren's 
Housekeeping,"  which  appeared  in  The  Independent  (New 
York)  for  May  29,  1890,  the  record  is  here  printed  for  the 
first  time.  The  descriptions  in  the  notes  at  the  end  of 
each  chapter  are  drawn  from  Samuels's  Birds  of  New 
England  and  Adjacent  States,  and  Coues's  Key  to  North 
American  Birds,  and  from  the  latter  source  are  also  taken, 
by  permission,  the  engravings  of  the  bobolink,  golden- 
winged  woodpecker,  downy  woodpecker,  kingfisher,  blue 

jay,  and  butcher  bird. 

M.  M. 


CONTENTS. 


PREFACE iii 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.     THE  ROBIN 1 

II.  BLUEBIRD  AND  SPARROWS      ......       10 

III.  THE  SWALLOWS 21 

IV.  WOODPECKERS          .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .31 

V.     THE  WREN .42 

VI.  BILLY  WREN'S  HOUSEKEEPING       .....      50 

VII.     SCREECH-OWLS .56 

VIII.    CUCKOO  AND  COW-BUNTING 64 

IX.     FLYCATCHERS 76 

X.     THE  BIRD  CLASS  AT  SCHOOL 84 

Xr.     A  PICNIC 89 

XII.  MIGRATION                                                                                 99 


MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    ROBIN. 

APRIL  is  here,  and  in  all  the  school-rooms  from 
Maine  to  Connecticut  —  to  say  nothing  of  school- 
rooms in  other  states  —  I  think  I  can  see  eager  faces 
turned  often  to  the  window  and  hear  restless  feet 
tapping  the  floor  impatiently  in  prospect  of  a  run 
over  the  greensward.  The  robin  beside  the  door  is 
calling,  "  Come  out !  come  out !  "  and  every  bird  that 
sings  is  inviting  us  to  come  and  see.  Who  says  that 
our  feathered  friends  are  shy  ?  Come  gently,  gently, 
now,  boys  and  girls,  and  say,  "How  do  you  do?"  to 
them  and  see  what  they  will  say  to  it. 

Last  year  a  little  girl  who  found  that  I  knew  the 
names  of  the  birds  came  to  me  so  often  during  the 
winter  to  ask  about  those  that  came  to  her  door  for 
crumbs  that  I  began  to  think  a  bird  class  would  be  a 
good  thing.  So  I  said  to  Lois,  and  Lois  said  to  all 


2  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

the  boys  and  girls  she  knew,  that  if  they  would  meet 
for  an  hour  every  Saturday  afternoon  through  the 
spring  and  summer,  I  would  tell  them  what  I  knew 
about  birds.  So  on  the  second  Saturday  in  April  I 
went  to  Lois'  house,  and  there  I  found  seven  girls 
and  three  boys  waiting  for  me.  They  all  seemed 
quite  happy  at  the  prospect  of  the  class:  but  when 
they  spied  a  small  book  in  my  hand,  the  boys  at  once 
looked  sober,  and  Cicely,  the  oldest  girl,  explained 
that  they  did  not  suppose  that  they  were  going  to 
study  out  of  a  book. 

"Why,  no  indeed,"  said  I, .  "  I  wouldn't  think  of 
asking  you  to  spend  your  holiday  in  that  way.  Now 
see ;  all  I  brought  this  for  is  to  show  you  this  draw- 
ing of  a  bird.  When  you  tell  me  about  a  bird,  I  want 
you  to  use  these  names.  Here  is  the  bill  H  ;  this  is 
the  front,  or  forehead  I ;  this,  the  crown,  or  top  of  the 
head  J;  here  is  the  back  L;  this  part  of  the  back  just 
above  the  tail  is  the  rump  0 ;  the  wing  you  see  spread 
out  ABODE;  just  under  the  bill  is  the  throat  and 
chin,  Gr  and  F;  lower  down  is  the  breast;  and  the 
rest  you  may  call  the  under  parts.  Now,  when 
you've  learned  all  these  names,  I  will  shut  up  the 
book,  and  we  will  not  look  in  it  again  once. 

"  The  way  we  are  going  to  do  is  this  :  Each  time 
you  come,  you  shall  tell  me  about  some  bird  you 


THE  ROBI:NT. 


have  seen,  describing  each  part  carefully.  If  I  know 
what  it  is  from  your  account,  I  will  tell  you  the 
name  of  it.  Then,  after  we  have  hacl  a  little  talk, 
we  will  go  for  a  walk  to  see  what  we  can  see." 


E   D  C  B 


A,  primaries ;  B.  secondaries ;  C,  primary  coverts ;  D,  greater  coverts ;  E,  tertials ; 
F,  throat ;  G,  chin  ;  H,  bill ;  I,  front ;  J,  crown  ;  K,  lesser  coverts  ;  L,  interscapular 
region ;  M,  leg  (tarsus);  N,  abdomen  ;  O,  rump ;  P,  upper  tail  coverts ;  Q,  under 
tail  coverts. 


"  Oh,  Miss  May,  are  we  going  to  walk  to-day  ? 
Can't  we  go  now?" 

"  Why  no ;  of  course  not  yet.  "We  are  going  to 
talk  about  our  good  friend,  the  robin,  first.  I  won- 
der if  any  of  you  can  describe  his  colors." 


MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

The  children  all  looked  at  each  other  and  laughed 
a  little,  and  then  Cicely  said,  "I  think  I  can  "  ;  and 
one  and  another  said,  "  I  can,  I  can." 

"  That  is  good.     Now  begin,  Tom,  with  the  bill." 

"  It  is  yellow,  isn't  it  ?  " 

"  Yes  ;  but  are  you  not  sure  ?  " 

'  Yes,  I'm  sure  now." 

"  Now,  Cicely,  the  front  and  crown." 

"  I  don't  know,  Miss  May,  as  I'm  exactly  certain 
about  the  color,  but  I  know  it  is  dark.  I'm  sure  it 
isn't  black.  It's  brownish." 

"  /  thought  it  was  black,  sometimes,"  said  bright- 
eyed  Lois. 

"  So  it  is,"  said  I ;  "  the  father  bird  has  a  black 
head,  but  the  mother  bird's  is  gray  or  brown.  Now 
what  is  the  color  of  the  back  ?  " 

No  one  was  sure  about  the  back  or  wings  or  tail, 
but  they  all  agreed  that  the  breast  was  red.  "  Why,  it 
must  be  red ;  for  wasn't  it  called  (  Robin  Redbreast '  ? " 
Neither  did  any  one  know  what  colored  stockings 
Mr.  Robin  wore,  although  little  Johnny  said  he 
watched  one  only  the  day  before. 

"  But  please,  Miss  May,  he  ran  so  fast  I  couldn't 
see  his  legs  at  all." 

"  Now,  you  see,"  said  I,  "  you  do  not  know  what 
kind  of  clothes  your  nearest  neighbor  wears,  so  you 


THE    ROBIN.  5 

will  have  to  learn  to  look  more  sharply.  The  next 
time  you  come,  you  must  do  better  than  to-day.  The 
next  question  is,  '  What  do  robins  eat  ? ' 

Chorus.  "  Cherries  and  currants  and  corn  and 
bread  and  worms  and  everything." 

"  Oh  ho,  oh  ho,  my  boys  and  girls  !  So  you  think 
every  kind  of  bird  eats  every  kind  of  thing,  do  you  ? 
Just  as  if  the  little  white  boy  and  the  Indian  boy  and 
the  Chinese  boy  all  had  the  same  things  for  breakfast. 
Try  again." 

Tom.     "  I  know  they  just  stuff  our  cherries." 

Johnny.     "  And  they  get  all  our  strawberries." 

Bertram.  "  And  Uncle  Henry  says  he  would  like 
to  shoot  every  robin,  so  that  he  could  have  some  fruit 
for  himself." 

"Is  that  so?  I  suppose  poor  Robin  Redbreast 
does  like  cherries  and  berries,  and  perhaps  no  one 
ever  told  him  that  it  was  stealing.  /  do  not  call  it 
stealing,  though,  and  I'll  tell  you  why.  I  think  he 
earns  every  bit  of  fruit  that  he  gets.  I  read  a  story 
not  long  ago  that  proves  it. 

"  A  man  found  a  poor  little  robin  that  had  fallen 
out  of  the  nest  before  it  could  fly  or  had  hardly  any 
feathers  on  it.  So  he  put  it  in  a  cage  and  began  to 
feed  it.  He  had  had  one  before  that  he  fed  on  bread 
and  fruit,  and  it  died,  so  he  thought  he  would  give 


6  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

this  one  meat.  He  cut  some  beef  into  little  strips, 
each  as  large  as  an  angleworm.  '  Now/  he  said  to 
himself,  '  with  four  babies  in  the  nest  the  old  birds 
can't  get  them  more  than  ten  worms  apiece  a 
day. 

"  So  the  first  day  he  gave  the  young  bird  ten  bits 
of  meat.  The  next  morning  the  poor  thing  was  so 
weak  he  thought  it  would  die.  That  day  he  gave  it 
fifteen,  and  the  next  twenty-four,  and  every  day  after 
that  a  few  more.  Still  the  bird  did  not  grow  any 
until  the  fourteenth  day,  when  he  gave  it  sixty-eight 
worms  —  more  than  its  own  weight.  Just  think  of 
that !  Every  five  minutes,  all  day  long,  the  old 
birds  come  with  their  bills  full  of  worms  to  stuff  into 
the  open  mouths.  Don't  you  think  our  fathers  and 
mothers  are  glad  their  boys  and  girls  do  not  eat  more 
than  their  own  weight  of  food  in  a  day  ? 

"  Another  man  who  was  trying  to  raise  some  silk- 
worms had  to  cover  his  mulberry  trees  with  netting, 
and  then  the  robins  would  break  through  it,  although 
there  was  plenty  of  fruit  in  the  neighborhood.  You 
see  they  knew  their  babies  must  have  worms  or  they 
would  die. 

"  Tell  your  Uncle  Henry,  Bertram,  that  if  he  should 
kill  all  the  birds,  I  do  not  believe  there  would  be  a 
leaf  left  on  his  trees  or  a  bush  for  the  berries  to 
grow  on. 


THE    ROBIN.  7 

"  There  is  one  thing  more  that  I  have  to  tell  you 
to-day,  and  that  is  our  robin's  family  name.  You 
may  not  know  that  all  the  birds  belong  in  families 
just  as  you  do ;  but  so  it  is.  Robin  Redbreast  be- 
longs to  the  Thrush  family,  and  a  cousin  of  his  is  the 
catbird." 

After  we  had  all  repeated  the  name,  I  said,  "  We 
will  now  go  for  a  short  walk  in  the  orchard  behind 
the  barn,  but  the  boys 
must  remember  that 
they  can't  see  any 
birds  unless  they  go 
quietly." 

Whoop !  Boys  go 
quietly  on  a  Saturday, 
—  who  ever  heard  of 
such  a  thing!  Out- 
side the  door  were  waiting  the  great  mastiff,  King, 
and  his  friend  the  Skye  terrier,  Trix,  and  fine  helps 
they  were  for  bird-seeing !  A  shout  from  the  boys 
would  startle  a  bird  from  a  bush,  and  away  both 
dogs  would  go  after  it  until  it  was  out  of  sight. 

"  0  boys,  boys  !  Why  will  you  be  boys  !  Why  can't 
you  tiptoe  along  as  these  girls  are  doing  ?  See ;  there 
goes  a  robin.  Can  we  get  near  enough  to  see  that 
his  throat  is  white  streaked  with  black,  and  that 


8  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

there  are  small  white  patches  above  and  below  th 
eye  ?  Fie  on  those  dogs  !  There  he  goes  ;  but  no\ 
we  can  see  the  white  on  his  outer  tail-feathers  as  h 
flies. 

"  Flitting  through  the  tops  of  the  trees  is  a  flock  o 
little  birds  keeping  close  together.  They  must  b 
tree  sparrows,  those  dear  little  birds  that  have  bee: 
with  us  all  winter ;  for  the  spring  birds  do  not  go  i 
flocks  like  that.  Well,  let  us  go  back  now.  Ther 
is  no  use  in  going  farther  to-day.  Another  time  w 
will  leave  the  dogs  behind  —  and  the  boys,  too,  : 
they  can't  go  more  softly.  Good  by,  children ;  d 
not  forget  what  I  have  told  you,  for  I  shall  ask  yo 
questions  next  Saturday." 


FOR   THE   TEACHER. 

THE  THRUSH   FAMILY. 

Robin,  already  described. 

Catbird :  Color,  blackish  ash  or  dark  slate ;  crown  and  ta: 
black;  under  tail-coverts,  chestnut.  It  is  so  called  from  i 
cry  when  alarmed,  which  is  like  a  cat's  mew.  It  has  also 
song  which  resembles  that  of  the  brown  thrush. 

Brown  thrush  (thrasher) :  Color,  reddish  brown ;  belo^ 
white  with  more  or  less  tawny  tinge,  and  thickly  spotted  ai 
streaked  with  dark  brown.  It  has  a  long,  richly  varied  son 


THE    ROBIN.          ,  U 

Song-thrush  or  wood-thrush  :  Color,  above,  cinnamon  brown, 
shading  into  olivaceous  on  rump  and  tail ;  beneath,  white, 
marked  with  large,  distinct,  dusky  spots.  Its  beautiful  song 
is  heard  at  early  dawn  and  twilight. 

Wilson's  thrush :  Color,  above,  nearly  uniform  light  reddish 
brown ;  beneath,  white,  with  small,  indistinct  spots  on  breast 
and  sides.  The  song  is  a  peculiar  one,  with  a  metallic  ring 
difficult  to  describe,  beginning  quite  loud  and  decreasing  to  a 
faint  lisp.  It  is  commonly  called  the  veery  from  its  note. 

The  hermit  and  olive-backed  thrushes  are  not  so  often 
seen.  They  have  the  prevailing  colors  brown  and  white. 

The  mocking-bird  of  the  Southern  States  belongs  to  this 
family. 

All  of  these  birds,  with  the  exception  of  the  robin,  catbird, 
and  mocking-bird,  build  in  the  woods  and  are  quite  shy. 

The  brown  thrush  rests  in  hedges  and  brush  heaps  on  the 
prairies  of  Illinois  ;  never  in  the  woods. 


CHAPTER   II. 

BLUEBIRD    AND    SPARROWS. 

THE  next  week  my  class  had  increased  to 
twelve,  and  as  lively  a  brood  of  chickens  I  found 
them  as  ever  an  anxious  mother  hen  had  to  look 
after. 

As  soon  as  we  had  seated  ourselves  and  were  toler- 
ably quiet,  I  began,  — 

"Who  knows  to  what  family  the  robin  belongs  ?" 

No  one  looked  as  if  they  had  ever  heard  of  it, 
except  Lois,  who  raised  her  hand. 

"  What !  not  remember  what  I  told  you  ?  " 

"  Bird  family,  I  guess,"  said  Tom,  pertly. 

"  Yes,  and  you  belong  to  the  boy  family,  I  sup- 
pose. 

"  Come,  Cicely,"  I  said,  turning  to  the  oldest  girl, 
"you  ought  to  know." 

Cicely.  "  I  think  you  said  the  Bobolink  family, 
did  you  not,  Miss  May  ?  " 

Lois  could  hold  in  no  longer. 

"  It's  a  thrush,  it's  a  thrush,  Miss  May !  " 

Chorus.     "  Oh  yes  ;  so  it  is." 

10 


BLUEBIRD    AND    SPARROWS.  11 

'•  Can   any  one   tell   me  what   the   young   robins 

<    A  >  1 

eat  c 

The  words  were  scarcely  out  of  my  mouth  when 
there  was  a  deafening  chorus  of,  "  Sixty-eight  worms 
a  day  !  sixty-eight  worms  a  day  !  " 

"  Good  !  I  am  glad  you  have  not  forgotten  that. 
Now  I  suppose  you  each  have  some  bird  to  describe?" 

Bertram.     "  I  did  not  see  any." 

Tom.     "  I  know  a  lot  of  them." 

"  Very  well ;  describe  one." 

Tom.  "  Guess  I'll  take  the  chippy.  It  is  a  little 
bird  about  so  big,  and  it  is  a  kind  of  brown  all 


over." 


"  Is  that  all  you  can  say  about  it  ?  " 

"  Yes'm." 

"Then  I  think  you  have  made  a  mistake.  I 
should  say  that  was  a  wren,  from  your  description." 

"  Oh,  but  I  know  'twas  a  chippy." 

"  How  do  you  know  ?  " 

"  Oh,  by  the  looks  of  it." 

"  Yes ;  but  you  see  I  do  not  know.  If  you  were 
telling  me  about  some  strange  bird,  I  could  not  give 
you  the  name  of  it  from  any  such  description." 

"  Oh,  teacher,"  said  Annie  Blanchard,  leaning  over 
the  back  of  my  chair,  "  what  is  that  bird  that  always 
goes  in  the  bushes  and  seems  so  lonesome  when  there 


12  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

are  no  bushes  for  it  to  go  in  ?  It  is  a  biggish  kind 
of  bird,  but  I  forget  what  color  it  is  —  " 

"  Oh  dear,"  I  said  to  myself,  "  I  am  getting  into 
trouble  by  agreeing  to  tell  the  names  of  birds  from 
description  "  ;  then  aloud,  — 

"  I  do  not  know,  Annie.  It  must  be  a  strange 
sort  of  bird.  Have  you  seen  it  often  ?  " 

"  Yes'm,  lots  of  times  ;  but  not  very  lately." 

"  Well,  I  hope  you  will  see  it  again  so  that  you 
can  tell  me  more  about  the  colors.  What  is  it  you 
wish  to  say,  Lois  ?  " 

"  Oh,  please,  Miss  May,"  said  little  Lois,  rising, 
"  I  saw  some  birds  down  lot,  and  they  looked  like 
this  "  (as  she  talked  she  patted  the  parts  of  her  body 
as  she  named  them).  "  They  were  not  as  big  as  a 
robin,  and  they  were  bigger  than  a  chippy.  The  top 
of  the  head  —  crown  I  mean — *"  (here  she  clapped 
both  hands  on  her  curls)  —  "was  gray,  and  I  think  the 
-back  was  a  kind  of  speckled  gray  and  brown,  and 
underneath  was  all  gray,  and  it  had  a  black  patch  on 
the  throat,  here,  so  —  only  some  did  not  have  any 
black  at  all.  Do  you  know  what  kind  it  was  ?  " 

"  Very  good,  very  good  indeed,  Lois.  There  is  no 
mistaking  that  bird.  Those  were  English  sparrows  ; 
the  ones  without  the  black  were  the  females.  You 
know  they  were  brought  over  here  from  England 


BLUEBIRD  AND  SPARROWS.  13 

several  years  ago.  I  am  sorry  they  are  getting  so 
plenty  in  our  little  village,  for  they  are  quarrelsome, 
and  drive  away  other  birds." 

"I  know  all  about  those  English  sparrers,"  said 
Bertram  ;  "  there's  a  man  down  to  N.  gives  five  cents 
apiece  for  'em,  and  me  and  another  feller's  been 
shootin'  'em  all  the  mornin'."  Bertram,  you  see,  was 
as  careless  about  grammar  as  about  everything  else. 

"Are  you  sure  you  get  English  sparrows  every 
time,"  I  asked,  "and  kill  no  other  birds  by  mistake  ? 
You  know  it  is  against  the  law  to  kill  any  other 
little  birds,  and  you  may  be  fined  ten  dollars  if  you 
are  not  careful.'.' 

"  Oh  yes'm,  I  know,"  said  Bertram,  easily.  As 
we  were  going  for  our  walk  that  afternoon  we  passed 
Bertram's  house,  and  he  ran  in  and  brought  out  a 
string  of  five  birds  for  me  to  see.  Three  were  small 
birds,  hardly  as  large  as  a  chippy,  with  crimson 
patches  on  the  top  of  their  heads. 

"  Why,  Bertram,  do  you  call  these  English  spar- 
rows ?  Do  English  sparrows  have  red  caps  ?  " 

"  I  guess  that's  blood,"  said  Bertram,  beginning  to 
look  confused. 

"No,  it  is  not.  These  birds  are  called  redpolls, 
which  means  red  head,  and  they  are  the  prettiest 
and  dearest  little  birds  that  visit  us  sometimes  in  late 


14  MY    SATUEDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

winter  or  early  spring.  They  are  so  much  smaller 
than  the  others  I  should  think  you  would  have 
known  they  were  not  English  sparrows.  Now  let  us 
see  the  other  two,  larger  ones.  This  one  with  the 
spotted  breast  is  a  song-sparrow,  poor  thing !  He 
will  never  sing  his  sweet  song  again,  and  all  because 
a  boy  was  so  sure  he  knew  he  would  not  take  the 
trouble  to  make  sure.  Here  is  just  one  English  spar- 
row out  of  the  lot,  and  four  innocent  birds  had  to 
suffer.  Are  you  not  proud  of  yourself,  Bertram  ?" 

Bertram  looked  quite  ashamed  as  he  took  his  birds 
into  the  house  without  saying  another  word. 

But  to  go  back  to  the  lesson :  we  talked  about  the 
birds  that  are  the  very  first  to  come  back  in  spring. 
The  dear  bluebird  was  known  to  all,  and  some  had 
noticed  that  he  had  red  on  his  breast. 

"  Bright  red  ? "  said  I. 

"  No  :  red  as  that,"  said  they,  pointing  to  a  cherry- 
wood  table. 

"  I  think  there  is  one  building  now  in  the  post  at 
the  front  corner  of  our  house,"  said  Lois.  "  We  are 
just  as  careful  as  we  can  be,  Mary  and  I,  not  to 
frighten  it,  and  we  have  seen  it  going  there  lots  of 
times. 

"  And  there  is  another  bird  with  a  blue  back,  Miss 
May,  that  has  been  here  all  winter.  It's  not  so  blue 


BLUEBIRD  AND  SPARROWS.  15 

as  the  bluebird,  and  it  has  black  on  the  back  of  its 
head  that  comes  down  so  "  (she  drew  her  hands  down 
over  her  ears  and  neck),  "  and  underneath  it  is  all 
white.  It  came  to  get  crumbs  at  our  back  door 
almost  every  day." 

"  I  gueth  there'th  one  now,"  exclaimed  Sidney,  who 
had  been  looking  out  of  the  window.  We  all  sprang 
to  see,  and  there,  sure  enough,  coming  down  the  elm 
tree,  only  a  few  feet  away,  was  the  bird  Lois  had 
described. 

"  Yes,  I  thought  so.     It  is  a  nuthatch." 

"  It's  a  little  beauty,"  cried  all  the  girls. 

"I  shouldn't  think  it  would  like  to  go  with  its 
head  down  all  the  time,"  said  Tom. 

"  I  have  read  that  it  sleeps  with  its  head  down," 
said  I. 

"  My  !  I  should  think  it  would  get  a  headache," 
said  Kate. 

Meanwhile  little  nuthatch  was  running  about  the 
trunk,  undisturbed  by  the  heads  in  the  window,  peep- 
ing under  the  bark  with  bright  black  eyes,  and  pulling 
out  now  and  then  a  good  morsel  for  his  dinner.  At 
last  he  flew  away  with  a  funny  little  note  that 
sounded  like  "  krek  krek." 

"  Two  other  birds  I  must  speak  of  before  we  go 
for  our  walk.  One  is  the  song-sparrow.  I  hope  we 


16 


MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 


shall   hear   one   to-day.      It   builds   mostly   on   the 
ground  in  the  fields,  sometimes  close  by  the  road." 
"Pooh!     I've   found    their  nests    lots  of   times/' 

said  Tom.  "  I  call  them 
ground-birds.  Their  eggs 
are  blue,  speckled  all  over." 
"  Well,  after  this  you 
will  have  a  better  name 
for  them.  The  best  way 
of  knowing  the  song-spar- 
row is  by  a  distinct  dark 
spot  in  the  middle  of  its 
breast.  There  are  smaller 
streaks  or  spots  upon  its 
sides.  Then  there  is  the 
chipping  sparrow.  How 
many  know  the  chippy?" 
Every  hand  went  up,  and  I  had  so  many  stories 
told  me  all  at  once  about  chippies  that  had  built  in 
"  my  rose-bush  "  and  "our  hedge,"  that  I  concluded 
this  bird  needed  no  description.  So  we  started  forth 
for  a  walk.  We  stopped  at  the  post  at  the  corner, 
and,  looking  in,  could  see  the  bluebird's  nest,  with 
one  pale  blue  egg  in  it.  Then  we  went  down  to  the 
graveyard  to  look  for  birds  among  the  evergreens. 
The  boys  disappeared  by  the  way,  and  as  a  ball 


Upper  Fig.     SNOWBIRD. 
Lower  Fig.     SONG-SPARROW. 


BLUEBIRD  AND  SPARROWS.  17 

game  was  in  progress  up  the  street,  we  thought  we 

knew  what  had  become  of  them. 

^ 

Kate  said  that  she  was  going  to  find  a  humming- 
bird's nest.  I  told  her  "  she  would  be  a  lucky  girl 
indeed  if  she  did." 

We  saw  the  blackbirds  called  purple  grackles, 
spreading  their  boat-shaped  tails  as  they  flew  about 
the  pine  trees  in  which  they  were  building ;  we  heard 
several  song-sparrows  singing ;  we  followed  a  brown 
bird  a  long  distance,  but  could  not  get  near  enough  to 
see  what  it  was.  Then  from  one  of  the  evergreens 
came  a  sweet,  long-continued  warble.  As  we  were 
watching  closely  to  see  what  it  might  be,  the  songster 
flew  out  and  sailed  over  our  heads,  singing  as  he 
flew.  We  could  see  that  he  was  about  the  size  of  a 
song-sparrow.  Just  as  he  disappeared  into  another 
spruce  tree,  we  caught  sight  of  the  glowing  crimson 
on  the  upper  part  of  his  body. 

"  Oh,  it  is  a  purple  finch,"  I  cried. 

"  I  should  think  it  ought  to  be  a  red  finch,"  said 
Kate. 

"  No ;  purple  finch  is  the  name  of  it,  although  it 
looks  more  red  than  purple  to  us.  It  looks  like  a 
brown  sparrow  which  has  been  dipped  in  a  deep  red 
dye.  The  head  is  the  brightest  color ;  the  brown 
shows  through  on  the  other  parts. 


18  MY  SATURDAY  BIRD  CLASS. 

"  Now  that  we  have  seen  something  worth  seeing, 
let  us  go  home." 

FOE   THE  TEACHER. 

THE  SPARROW  FAMILY. 

Chipping-sparrow,  or  hair-bird:  Color,  rump,  back  of  neck 
and  sides  of  neck  and  head,  ashy ;  crown,  a  continuous,  uniform 
chestnut ;  forehead,  black,  separated  in  the  middle  by  white ; 
a  white  streak  over  the  eye  and  a  black  one  from  the  base  of 
the  bill  through  and  behind  the  eye  ;  under  parts,  ashy  white  ; 
two  narrow  white  bands  across  the  wing-coverts.  Length,  5| 
inches. 

Tree-sparrow :  Color,  hood  and  upper  part  of  nape  contin- 
uous chestnut ;  a  line  of  the  same  from  behind  the  eye ;  sides 
of  head  and  neck,  ashy ;  a  broad,  light  band  over  the  eye ; 
beneath,  whitish,  with  a  small,  circular  blotch  of  brownish  in 
the  middle  of  the  upper  part  of  the  breast ;  edges  of  tail- 
feathers,  primary  quills,  and  two  bands  across  the  tips  of  the 
secondaries,  white.  Length,  6^  inches. 

I  have  described  the  parts  in  which  the  chipping-sparrow 
and  tree-sparrow  resemble  each  other,  from  which  it  may  be 
seen  that  they  might  easily  be  confused. 

The  tree-sparrow  breeds  in  the  north,  but  comes  in  small 
flocks  to  spend  the  winter  with  us,  often  lingering  till  the  first 
week  in  May. 

The  chipping-sparrow  arrives  here  early  in  the  spring,  and 
is  our  neighbor  and  familiar  friend  through  the  summer. 

The  English  sparrow  has  many  unlovely  traits,  and  often 
drives  away  more  attractive  birds;  but  I  should  hesitate  to 


BLUEBIRD  AND  SPARROWS.          19 

encourage  the  spirit  of  destructiveness  in  boys  by  allowing 
them  to  kill  even  such  objectionable  birds. 

There  are  many  other  kinds  of  sparrows  in  the  United 
States,  all  of  which  bear  a  general  resemblance  to  each  other. 
A  familiar  member  of  this  family  is  the  snowbird,  which  is 
so  frequently  seen  as  a  winter  visitor  that  I  give  the  descrip- 
tion. 

Snowbird:  Color,  grayish  or  dark  ashy  black,  stopping 
abruptly  on  the  breast;  beneath,  white;  first  and  second 
external  tail-feathers,  white ;  the  third  tail-feather,  white, 
margined  with  black.  Length,  6J  inches. 

Closely  allied  to  the  sparrows  are  the  finches  and  buntings, 
individual  species  of  which  will  be  mentioned  later. 

The  lesser  redpoll  is  a  finch  described  as  follows :  — 

Color,  above,  light  yellowish,  each  feather  streaked  with 
dark  brown ;  crown,  dark  crimson ;  upper  part  of  breast  and 
sides  of  the  body  tinged  with  a  lighter  tint  of  the  same ;  the 
rump  and  under  tail  coverts  also  similar,  but  less  vivid,  and 
with  dusky  streaks;  rest  of  under  parts  white,  streaked  on 
the  sides  with  brown;  wing-feathers  edged  externally  and 
tail-feathers  all  round  with  white ;  two  yellowish  white  bands 
across  the  wing-coverts;  secondaries  and  tertiaries  edged 
broadly  with  the  same. 

The  specimen  described  above  is  a  male  in  winter  dress. 
The  spring  plumage  has  much  more  of  the  red. 

The  female  winter  specimens  lack  the  rose  of  the  under 
parts  and  rump.  Length,  5£  inches. 

The  redpoll  is  not  a  regular  winter  visitor,  but  is  seen  some 
years  in  great  flocks.  I  have  only  observed  it  two  seasons  in 
ten  years. 


20  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    GXASS. 

The  male  purple  finch  is  in  color  crimson,  rosy  or  purplish 
red,  most  intense  on  the  crown,  fading  to  white  beneath, 
mixed  with  dusky  streaks  on  the  back ;  wings  and  tail  dusky, 
with  reddish  edgings,  and  the  wing  coverts  tipped  with  the 
same. 

Female  and  young  with  no  red  —  olivaceous  brown,  brighter 
on  the  rump,  the  feathers  above  all  with  paler  edges,  produc- 
ing a  streaked  appearance ;  below,  white,  thickly  spotted,  and 
streaked  with  brown.  Length,  6^  inches. 

This  beautiful  bird  is  found  everywhere,  and  builds  usually 
in  pine  or  cedar  trees. 

The  bluebird  belongs  to  the  family  known  as  "rock- 
inhabiters,"  and  is  the  only  species  found  in  the  Eastern 
States. 

The  white-bellied  nuthatch :  color,  above,  ashy  blue ;  top  of 
head  and  neck,  black ;  under  parts  and  sides  of  head  to  a  short 
distance  above  the  eye,  white ;  bill  stout.  Length,  about  six 
inches. 

This  bird  is  a  frequent  winter  visitor,  and  it  regularly 
breeds  as  far  south  as  Massachusetts.  It  is  more  often  seen 
than  the  red-bellied  nuthatch,  which  is  only  4J  inches  in  length, 
and  whose  color  is  above,  ashy  blue  ;  top  of  head,  black ;  a  white 
line  above  and  a  black  one  through  the  eye ;  chin,  white ;  rest 
of  under  parts,  brownish  rusty. 

The  nests  of  both  species  are  built  in  holes  in  trees,  or 
stumps,  usually  excavated  by  the  birds  for  the  purpose. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE    SWALLOWS. 

MY  third  lesson  was  given  at  the  house  of  Ralph 
Upton.  (Did  I  say  that  we  met  at  the  home  of  each 
pupil  in  turn?)  Ralph,  being  an  only  son,  has  a 
room  full  of  toys  which  were  very  distracting.  Sid- 
ney wound  up  the  music  box  at  once.  Johnny  began 
to  draw  pictures  on  the  transparent  slate.  Tom 
seized  a  piece  of  chalk,  and  drew  portraits  of  all  the 
bird  class  and  their  teacher  on  the  blackboard,  while 
the  rest  of  the  children  were  soon  immersed  in  pict- 
ure books.  At  last  I  managed  to  get  the  toys  piled 
up  on  the  shelf,  pocketed  the  chalk,  and  called  my 
class  to  order  by  separating  the  boys,  who  were 
crowded  together  on  the  sofa  so  that  they  looked  like 
nothing  but  a  tangle  of  legs  and  arms.  Then  I  be- 
gan to  talk  very  fast,  and  soon  had  them  so  interested 
that  they  forgot  to  look  for  further  distractions.  My 
subject  was  The  Swallows. 

"  Five  kinds  of  swallows  there  are,  that  live  near 
us,  and  one  that  is  not  really  a  swallow  though  it  is 
called  so.  Can  any  one  name  them  ?" 

21 


22 


MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 


Chimney-swallows  and  barn-swallows  were  the  only 
ones  my  class  had  heard  of. 

"  Have  you  never  seen  the  bank-swallows'  holes 
in  the  sand  along  the  river  ?  The  bank-swallow  is 
grayish  brown  above  and  white  beneath.  Don't  you 


BANK-SWALLOW. 


wish  you  could  see  it  sometimes,  tunnelling  its  way 
into  the  bank  several  feet  before  it  scoops  out  a  room 
for  its  nest  ?  How  do  you  suppose  it  goes  to  work  ? 
Does  it  dig  with  its  feet  or  its  bill  ?  It  is  a  curious 
thing,  is  it  not,  that  although  the  sand  is  quite  soft 


THE    SWALLOWS.  23 

and  yielding  sometimes  in  the  places  it  chooses,  it 
never  seems  to  cave  in  on  the  birds.  What  a  snug 
place  it  is  for  the  young  ones  where  no  hawks  can 
get  them ! 

"  After  the  old  birds  have  taken  so  much  trouble 
to  make  a  safe  home  for  their  babies,  you  would  not 
think  boys  could  be  so  mean  as  to  dig  into  their 
nests,  would  you  ?  The  next  time  we  walk  to  the 
river  we  will  see  if  we  cannot  spy  the  bank-swallows 
skimming  about  over  the  water  for  insects. 

"  The  chimney-swallow  is  really  a  swift,  but  it 
looks  and  acts  so  much  like  a  swallow  that  it  is 
called  one.  Where  do  they  build  ?  " 

"  In  the  chimneys,"  shouted  one  and  all. 

"  What  did  they  do  before  there  were  any  chim- 
neys to  build  in  ?  " 

That  was  a  poser. 

"  Guess  there  weren't  any  swallows  then,"  sug- 
gested Johnny. 

"  Oh  yes,  there  were.  They  made  their  nests  in 
hollow  trees ;  but  when  men  came  and  built  houses, 
the  swallows  found  out  that  chimneys  were  more  to 
their  taste,  though  why  they  like  them  better  I  can- 
not see.  They  always  fly  about  in  the  air,  above  the 
houses  and  tree-tops,  catching  insects.  They  fly  so 
fast  and  light  so  seldom,  that  it  is  hard  to  see  their 


24  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

colors,  but  there  are  other  ways  of  knowing  them. 
You  can  recognize  them  by  their  short  tails,  though, 
if  you  have  noticed  the  swallows,  you  will  see  that 
they  all  fly  differently,  and  you  can  almost  know 
them  by  that.  Did  any  of  you  ever  see  a  chimney- 
swallow  close  by  ?  " 

Lois  had  been  waiting  impatiently  for  an  oppor- 
tunity to  speak.  •"'  I  have  ;  I  have.  There  was  a  nest 
fell  down  our  chimney.  Papa  opened  the  fireboard 
and  put  his  hand  in  —  I  don't  see  how  he  dared  to  — 
and  pulled  out  a  nest  with  three  little  birds  in  it. 
He  most  dropped  it,  though,  and  I  wondered  what 
made  him  look  so  funny.  He  gave  me  one  bird  to 
hold  and  said  it  would  not  hurt  me.  So  I  took  it, 
but  I  thought  it  had  pins  in  its  tail,  and  I  screamed ; 
its  tail-feathers  are  sharp  just  like  pins,  and  it  was 
all  black  and  gray,  just  as  if  it  was  covered  with  soot 
and  ashes.  They  were  quite  big  birds  ;  we  took  them 
out  doors,  let  them  go,  and  they  flew  away." 

"  The  pins  in  the  tail,  Lois,  were  to  help  it  climb. 
Did  you  notice  how  small  the  feet  were  ?  They  say 
it  never  lights  on  trees  or  on  the  ground.  How  do 
you  suppose  it  gets  the  sticks  for  its  nest  ?  I  know 
you  cannot  guess,  so  I  will  tell  you.  The  birds  look 
about  till  they  find  a  dead  tree  or  branch ;  they  then 
fly  against  the  twigs,  snap  them  off,  and  carry  them 


THE    SWALLOWS.  25 

away.  They  glue  the  twigs  together  and  fasten 
them  to  the  bricks  with  saliva  from  their  mouths. 
Sometimes  the  rain  gets  to  the  nest  and  softens  it  so 
that  it  falls  down  the  chimney.  Then,  you  see,  if  the 
young  birds  are  big  enough,  they  climb  up  again  by 
help  of  the  pins  in  their  tails. 

"  The  largest  and  most  beautiful  swallow  is  the 
purple  martin,  which  is  a  glossy  dark  blue,  with 
violet  and  purple  tints.  There  used  to  be  a  colony 
of  them  in  the  belfry  of  our  church.  On  Sundays, 
when  the  organ  played,  they  chattered  so  loud  it 
made  a  great  disturbance.  I  never  could  find  out 
whether  they  liked  the  music,  or  were  afraid  of  it, 
when  they  made  such  a  din.  I  like  to  imagine  they 
enjoyed  it,  and  were  trying  to  sing  the  hymn  when 
they  joined  their  voices  with  ours.  The  martins 
usually  build  in  boxes  which  people  put  up  for  them, 
and  they  are  nice,  though  noisy,  neighbors. 

The  white-bellied,  or,  as  he  is  sometimes  called,  the 
bluebacked  swallow,  builds  in  the  martin  boxes  or 
holes  in  trees.  These  birds  have  blue  backs,  with 
greenish  lights  on  them,  and  are  white  beneath.  The 
next  time  you  see  any  martin  boxes,  you  must  notice 
whether  the  birds  building  in  them  are  dark  colored 
all  over,  like  the  martin,  or  white  beneath,  like  the 
white-bellied  swallow. 


26 


MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 


"  There  are  two  kinds  of  swallows  that  build 
around  barns.  The  one  that  builds  inside,  on  the 
beams,  or  under  the  rafters,  is  called  the  barn-swal- 
low. He  has  a  beautiful  dark-blue,  shining  back, 

and  a  forked  tail.  He  flies 
like  the  wind.  His  nest  is 
made  of  grass  and  mud ;  I 
have  seen  him  dart  down 
and  seize  a  feather,  on  the 
wing,  to  line  it  with.  The 
other  plasters  its  nest  out- 
side, under  the  eaves,  and 
so  we  name  it  the  eaves- 
swallow." 

"  There  are  lots  of  them  on  Uncle  Daniel's  barn," 
remarked  Cicely. 

"  Then  I  suppose  you  have  seen  them  getting  the 
mud  for  their  nests?" 

No ;  Cicely  had  not  seen  them,  neither  had  any  of 
the  others. 

"  Where  do  they  get  it,  Misa  May  ? " 
"  They  usually  get  it  in  the  road  after  a  rain  ; 
though  if  it  is  very  dry,  they  sometimes  go  as  far  as 
the  river.  I  have  watched  them  many  times  after  a 
shower.  They  light  in  the  mud  and  flutter  their 
wings  to  keep  from  sinking  while  they  fill  their 


BARN-SWALLOW. 


THE    SWALLOWS.  27 

beaks  full.  Then  they  make  a  nice  mud  house  with 
it,  and  put  some  straw  inside,  and  leave  a  round  hole 
for  the  door  just  large  enough  for  an  entrance. 
Come,  let  us  go  down  to  Uncle  Daniel's  now,  and  see 
if  the  birds  are  at  work." 

Hats  and  caps  were  on  in  a  twinkling. 

"  Are  the  boys  going  with  us  to-day,"  I  said,  look- 
ing from  one  to  another,  "  or  is  base-ball  more  fun?" 

"  I  guess  we'll  go  to  walk  to-day,"  said  Tom. 
Johnny,  who  always  told  everything,  blurted  out, 
"  Our  mothers  told  us,  if  we  couldn't  go  to  walk  and 
behave  ourselves,  we  needn't  go  to  the  class  at  all. 
And  we  liked  to  come  to  the  class,  you  know,  all 
except  Bertram.  He  says  he  doesn't  have  half  holi- 
day enough  anyway,  so  he's  gone  fishing." 

We  walked  down  the  street,  two  and  two,  all  in 
proper  order.  Uncle  Daniel's  barn  was  not  far  from 
the  road,  and  we  could  see  the  swallows  darting  back 
and  forth.  "  Oh,  pshaw  !  "  pouted  Kate  ;  "  it  isn't 
wet  at  all  in  the  road,  so  we  can't  see  them  get  the 
mud." 

As  we  came  to  the  barn  and  looked  up  under  the 
eaves  at  the  crowded  mud  nests,  Lois  was  the  first  to 
exclaim,  in  a  disappointed  tone,  "  I  don't  see  any 
long  necks  to  their  nests  such  as  you  told  us  of." 

Cicely  said    "  they  were    not   half   so    queer   and 


28  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

pretty  as  the  picture  in  Audubon  showed."  As  I 
had  never  looked  at  the  nests  close  by  before,  I  was 
not  prepared  for  the  change  which  the  birds  had 
made.  In  old  times  these  swallows  built  on  cliffs, 
whence  they  were  called  cliff-swallows,  and  the  long 
gourd-like  necks  were  needed  for  protection  of  the 
entrance  to  their  nests ;  but  the  eaves  now  supplied 
protection,  and  the  birds  were  wise  enough  to  leave 
off  the  unnecessary  neck.  This  I  explained  to  the 
children  and  showed  them  how  wise  the  little  crea- 
tures were. 

Under  the  eaves  of  the  long  barn  we  discovered  a 
few  new  nests,  some  old  ones,  and  some  partly  com- 
pleted. In  some  of  the  new  nests  we  could  see  birds' 
heads,  their  bright  eyes  peeping  at  us,  the  white 
crescent-shaped  mark  above  the  bill  showing  dis- 
tinctly. 

"Now  you  can  see,  children,  why  the  scientific 
name  is  lunifrons,  which  means  moon-front." 

Some  of  the  birds  were  startled  at  the  merry  chat- 
ter below  them,  and  slid  out  of  their  nests  and  flew 
away.  As  they  went,  we  caught  sight  of  the  chest- 
nut color  on  rump  and  throat. 

Uncle  Daniel  came  to  see  what  was  the  excite- 
ment. "  Oh,  those  birds  !  "  he  said.  "  I've  often 
wished  they  would  clear  out  and  go  somewhere  else. 


THE    SWALLOWS.  29 

They  used  to  build  on  the  old  barn,  but  just  as 
soon  as  the  new  one  was  made  they  all  moved  over 
to  it.  I  didn't  like  it  much  to  have  them  spoil  the 
looks  of  the  new  paint,  so  as  fast  as  they  plastered 
up  a  nest  I'd  knock  it  down.  But  they  stuck  to  it, 
and  finally  I  had  to  let  'em  have  their  own  way.  I 
think  I  should  miss  'em  now,  they've  been  around 
here  so  long.  I  like  to  hear  'em  twittering  up  there. 
One  fall  a  pair  of  'em  stayed  long  after  all  the  rest 
had  gone  south.  I  used  to  wonder  if  they  meant  to 
stay  all  winter.  Finally,  I  noticed  that  they  kept 
going  to  one  of  the  nests.  So  I  got  a  ladder  and 
went  up  there,  and  what  do  you  suppose  I  found  ?  " 

The  children  were  looking  up  in  his  face  with  ex- 
cited eyes. 

"  Oh,  I  don't  know,"  said  Lois,  in  a  half -whisper. 

"I  know,"  said  Cicely,  who  had  heard  the  story 
before  ;  "  'twas  a  young  bird  caught  in  the  nest." 

"  So  'twas !  how  did  you  know  ?  It  had  a  hair 
wound  tight  around  its  leg.  Just  as  soon  as  I  had 
loosened  it,  it  flew  away,  and  that  was  the  last  I  saw 
of  'em." 

"  Thank  you  for  the  story.  We  will  count  the 
swallows  among  our  special  friends  after  this,  won't 
we  ?  In  some  foreign  countries  people  are  so  glad  to 
see  the  swallows  when  they  come  back  in  the  spring 


30  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

that  the  children  go  from  door  to  door  begging  gifts 
for  the  birds. 
"They  say,- 

"The  swallow,  the  swallow, 
Upon  you  doth  wait ; 
An  alms-man  and  suppliant, 
He  stands  at  your  gate  ; 
Let  him  in  then,  I  say, 
For  no  graybeards  are  we, 
To  be  foiled  in  our  glee, 
But  boys  who  will  have  our  own  way." 


CHAPTER   IV. 

WOODPECKERS. 

THE  day  we  met  at  Tom's  house  we  talked  about 
the  woodpeckers.  Ralph  said  he  had  a  stuffed  one 
at  home,  so.  as  he  lived  close  by,  I  sent  him  after  it. 
When  it  came,  I  found  that  it  was  a  golden-winged 
woodpecker,  the  largest  kind  that  is  common.  It 
was  much  admired  by  the  children  for  the  beauty  and 
variety  of  its  markings.  They  did  not  think  they 
had  ever  seen  one  before.  I  held  it  up  for  them  to 
take  a  good  look  at  it,  then  put  it  behind  me  and 
bade  them  describe  it.  This  was  excellent  practice, 
and  was  almost  as  much  fun  as  a  guessing  game.  Its 
markings  were  so  varied  that  it  was  difficult  to 
remember  them.  Blue-gray  on  the  crown,  with  a  red, 
crescent-shaped  spot  on  the  back  of  the  head,  cinna- 
mon-colored throat,  with  black  on  the-  breast  like  a 
necklace ;  under  parts,  with  round  black  spots,  and 
the  under  side  of  the  wing  and  tail  feathers  golden- 
yellow  ;  a  dark  back  with  black  markings.  \Yhat  a 
handsome  bird  it  is  ! 

"  This  white  spot  on  the  rump  as  large  as  a  silver 
dollar,"  said  I,  "  shows  very  plainly  when  it  flies,  and 

31 


32 


MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 


that  is  one  way  by  which  you  may  know  the  bird. 

Another  way  to  tell  the  woodpeckers  at  a  distance  is 

by  their  flight.  They  all  go  up  and  down,  so,  in  reg- 
ular scallops.  This  golden- 
wing  has  a  great  many 
names  —  more,  perhaps, 
than  any  other  kind  of 
bird.  One  is  '  high -hole,' 
because  he  makes  his  nest 
high  in  the  trees.  Another 
is  '  yellow-hammer  ' ;  an- 
other, '  flicker ' ;  and  yet 
another,  '  wake-up.'  The 
last  two  are  from  the  call 
it  makes.  Have  you  never 
heard  it  — '  wake  up,  wake 

up,  wake  up,'  very  fast  and  loud?" 

"Wake  up,  wake  up,  wake  up,"  repeated  the  class 

in  chorus.     "We  shall  know  it  now  when  we  hear 

it." 

All  the  rest  of  the  afternoon  Johnny  was  saying 

"wake  up,  wake  up,  wake  up,"  to  himself. 

"  See  what  a  strong  bill  this  bird  has !     All  the 

woodpeckers   make   holes   in   trees  for   their   nests. 

There  are  two  other  kinds  that  are  common,  and  they 

look  a  good  deal  alike,  —  the  hairy  and  the  downy. 


GOLDEN-WINGED    WOODPECKER. 


WOODPECKERS.  33 

They  are  both  barred  with  black  and  white,  and  the 
male  of  each  has  a  red  patch  on  the  back  of  its  head. 
The  hairy  woodpecker  is  larger  than  the  downy, 
which  is  quite  small,  and  it  is  chiefly  by  the  differ- 
ence in  size  that  you  may  know  them,  although  the 
hairy  may  also  be  known  by  a  broad  white  stripe 
down  the  middle  of  the  back." 

"I  think,  Miss  May,"  said  Lois,  "that  there's  a 
downy  woodpecker  making  a  hole  in  the  maple  tree 
near  Cicely's  back  door.  It  looks  as  you  say,  and 
the  bird  is  not  very  large." 

"  Is  that  so  ?  Isn't  that  nice  ?  Have  you  seen  it, 
Cicely  ?  " 

"No'in,-!  haven't  noticed  it.  I  knew  there  was  a 
lot  of  chips  on  the  walk,  but  I  didn't  know  what 
made  them." 

"  A  pair  of  downies,"  said  I,  "  came  to  build  in 
an  apple  tree  near  our  house  this  spring.  The  dead 
branch  which  they  had  selected  was  in  sight  from 
our  sitting-room  window,  so  that  we  often  watched 
Mr.  Downy  at  work.  How  he  made  the  chips  fly ! 
He  made  a  round  hole  just  large  enough  for  an  en- 
trance. Then  he  went  down  deeper  and  deeper  into 
the  limb,  until  at  last  we  couldn't  even  see  the  tip  of 
his  tail  as  he  worked.  Mrs.  Downy  sat  around  and 
watched  him  admiringly.  It  took  three  weeks  to 


34  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

finish  the  house.  The  day  it  was  done  a  pair  of 
English  sparrows,  who  had  been  waiting  all  this 
time,  set  upon  Mr.  Downy  and  his  wife.  All  the 
other  English  sparrows  in  the  neighborhood  came 
to  join  in  the  fight,  and  as  there  were  no  other  wood- 
peckers to  assist,  poor  Downy  was  having  a  hard 
time  of  it,  when  we  heard  the  commotion  and  came 
to  the  rescue.  Downy  was  fighting  bravely,  but  in 
such  an  unequal  contest  he  was  sure  to  be  beaten. 
We  brought  long  poles  and  waved  them  and  threw 
things  at  the  sparrows  until  they  went  away. 

"But  they  came  again  and  again,  so  often  that  it 
would  have  taken  every  moment  of  our  time  to  keep 
watch,  and  at  last  the  downies  became  so  discouraged 
that  they  went  away.  We  were  so  angry  at  the  spar- 
rows that  my  father  got  a  ladder  and  went  up  and 
plugged  up  the  hole.  He  said  '  the  sparrows  should 
not  have  it,  anyway.'  They  were  very  mad  when 
they  found  that  they  could  not  get  into  the  house 
they  had  stolen,  but  finally  they,  too,  left  the  scene. 
For  a  week  all  was  quiet,  but  two  days  ago  we  heard 
a  familiar  tapping  in  the  apple  tree.  We  ran  to  the 
window,  and  there  was  Mr.  Downy  sounding  the  limb 
at  different  points.  He  found  that  the  plug  which  had 
stopped  his  hole  was  of  too  hard  wood  for  him,  so  he 
began  to  dig  just  below  it,  inclining  the  passage  up- 


WOODPECKERS.  35 

ward  to  meet  the  first  entrance.  In  an  hour's  time 
he  had  disappeared  within.  We  could  see  the  chips 
flying  out  as  if  he  were  sweeping  with  his  tail. 

"  The  sparrows  are  now  building  their  nest  some- 
where else,  so  that  we  think  our  friends  can  go  on 
with  their  housekeeping  unmolested." 

"  Where  are  we  going  to  walk  ?  "  was  the  question 
as  we  stood  on  the  doorsteps.  It  was  decided  by 
seeing  some  swallows  skimming  over  the  grass  near 
a  shed  in  a  field  not  far  away.  Thither  we  went, 
and  found  that  they  were  barn-swallows.  We  could 
see  their  shining  blue  backs  and  long  forked  tails. 

Sidney  was  lucky  enough  to  see  one  dart  into  an 
opening  near  the  peak  of  the  shed.  The  children 
raced  away  to  the  shed,  and  I  arrived  there  in  time 
to  help  Sidney  on  to  an  old  wagon,  where  the  rest  of 
the  class  had  already  climbed.  From  this  perch  we 
could  see  the  rafters,  and  there,  firmly  fastened  to 
the  lower  side  of  one  of  the  beams  which  upheld  the 
roof,  was  a  barn-swallow's  nest.  The  old  bird  was 
clinging  to  it,  feeding  the  chittering  young  ones. 

"My!  I'm  tho  glad  I  thaw  that  bird  fly  in  here. 
Aren't  you,  Mitheth  May  ?  "  exclaimed  Sidney. 

"  I  guess  we  are  all  glad,"  said  Lois  and  Annie  and 
Kate,  all  in  a  breath. 


36  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

After  we  had  watched  the  old  birds  come  to  the 
nest  a  number  of  times,  we  started  up  the  street. 

"  Let  us  go  into  the  meadows  by  the  upper  road/' 
said  I,  "  and  walk  along  the  bank  of  Mill  River,  and 
come  out  on  the  lower  road.  Will  that  be  too  long 
a  walk?" 

"  No,  no  !     That  will  be  jolly  !  "  cried  all. 

They  were  not  allowed  to  go  to  the  river  alone,  so 
it  was  a  great  treat. 

Johnny  was  lagging  far  behind.  I  think  he  was 
planning  to  play  truant,  and  join  Bertram  and  some 
other  boys  who  were  playing  ball  in  the  street. 

"Johnny,"  shouted  Sidney,  as  loud  as  he  could, 
"come  on.  We  are  going  to  Mill  River.  Hurry 
up!" 

Johnny  ran  to  join  us,  with  no  more  thoughts  of 
ball. 

We  walked  along  the  rough  bank,  under  the  shady 
trees,  now  stopping  to  hear  the  merry  bobolinks  in 
the  distance,  now  watching  the  robins  and  flycatchers. 
On  the  way  Johnny  had  a  fright ;  for  he  saw,  hoeing 
in  a  field  ahead  of  us,  a  man  that  he  was  sure  was  Mike 
Milligan.  Mike  was  a  poor-looking  creature,  with  a 
red  face,  wicked  eyes,  and  only  two  teeth  in  his  head ; 
and  since  the  time  when  he  told  Johnny  he  was  going 
to  swallow  him,  the  boy  had  always  been  afraid  of 
him. 


WOODPECKERS.  37 

So  he  tried  to  persuade  us  that  we  wanted  to  turn 
about  and  go  back  by  the  same  path  we  had  come. 
The  other  boys  said  Johnny  was  afraid,  but  Johnny 
said,  "No,  sir."  I  noticed,  however,  that  he  kept 
close  to  us  and  said  nothing  until  we  were  well  past 
the  field  where  Mike  was  working. 

We  saw  few  birds  close  by  on  this  walk.  It  was 
not  what  the  children  had  learned  to  call  "a  good 
bird  day."  On  some  days,  you  know,  there  seem  to 
be  twice  as  many  birds  as  there  are  on  other  days, 
and  they  are  much  tamer.  However,  Johnny,  while 
crawling  through  some  bushes,  saw  a  small  brown 
and  white  bird  running  close  by  the  water,  and  came 
to  call  us.  He  said,  "  He  ran  along,  jerking  up  his 
tail  in  such  a  funny  way.  Just  so,"  showing  us  with 
his  hands  how  it  went.  We  tiptoed  back ;  but  our 
bird  flew  away,  looking  much  larger  as  he  spread  his 
long  wings.  As  he  went,  he  called  "  peet-weet,  peet- 
weet." 

"  Good  !  "  I  exclaimed.  "  Now  you've  seen  the 
little  sandpiper  that  comes  often  along  our  rivers.  It 
has  two  common  names.  One  is  'tilt-up';  you  can 
guess  why  that  is,  and  the  other  is  <  peet-weet,'  from 
its  call.  It  makes  its  nest  on  the  ground,  and  the 
eggs,  which  are  light  brown  with  black  spots,  are  so 
near  the  color  of  the  earth  that  you  would  have  hard 


38 


MY    SATUEDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 


SANDPIPER. 


work  to  find  the  nest,  unless  you  scared  up  the  old 
bird  from  it,  right  under  your  feet." 

"I'm   going   to    find    one    before    the   thummer's 

over/'  said  Sidney. 

"  Yes,  if  you  can," 
said  Tom. 

"  Sidney  will  see  a 
great  many  more  things 
than  you  do,  Tom,  un- 
less you  look  sharper." 

"  Can't  see  birds  when 
there  aren't  any  to  see." 
"  Yes ;  but  there  are 
almost  always  birds  to  be  seen  somewhere,  if  you  are 
looking  for  them.  Remember  that." 

"  What's  that  noise  ? "  said  Tom,  to  change  the 
subject ;  "  sounds  like  a  rattle.  Wonder  who's  mak- 
ing such  a  racket  ?  " 

"  Steal  along  by  those  bushes  and  see.  I  think  it 
is  a  bird." 

"I  don't  believe  it,"  said  Tom,  as  he  rushed  off. 
He  made  such  a  commotion,  breaking  through  the 
alders,  that  the  owner  of  the  voice,  a  large  blue  and 
white  bird  with  a  thick  bill,  flew  directly  over  our 
heads,  rattling  as  he  went. 

"Ah!  it  is  a  kingfisher.     We  must  have  disturbed 


WOODPECKERS. 


39 


him  fishing.     He  digs  a  hole  from  four  to  six  feet 

into  the  river-bank  for  his  nest.     The  Greek  name 

for  the  kingfisher  was 

halcyon.      They  used 

to    believe    that    the 

bird  made  its  nest  on 

the  water,    and   that 

while  it  was  brooding 

the    sea   was    always 

calm." 

"That's  the  bird 
for  me,"  said  Tom. 
"  We've  seen  some- 
thing worth  while 
to-day.  KINGFISHER. 


FOR   THE   TEACHER. 

The  hairy  woodpecker  is  nine  inches  long  and  fifteen  in 
extent.  It  is  so  named  because  the  nostrils  are  hid  under 
thick,  bushy,  recumbent  hairs  or  bristles ;  under  the  bill  are 
certain  long  hairs  thrown  forward  and  upward. 

The  downy  woodpecker  is  6i  inches  long. 

The  golden-winged  woodpecker  is  about  12?  inches  in 
length.  Its  other  names  are,  clape,  high-hole,  pigeon-wood- 
pecker, flicker,  yucker,  Harry  Wicket,  and  wake-up. 

The  yellow-bellied  woodpecker  is  irregularly  distributed  as 
a  summer  visitor.  Its  general  colors  are  black  above,  much 


40  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

\ 

variegated  with  white ;  crown,  scarlet,  bordered  by  black  on 
the  sides  of  the  head  and  nape ;  a  streak  above,  and  another 
below  the  eye,  and  a  stripe  along  the  edges  of  the  wing-coverts 
white  ;  a  triangular  broad  patch  of  scarlet  on  the  chin,  bordered 
on  each  side  by  black  stripes  which  meet  behind  and  extend  in 
front  into  a  large  quadrate  spot  011  the  breast ;  rest  of  under 
parts,  yellowish  white  streaked  on  the  sides  with  black. 
Length,  8J  inches. 

The  large  pileated  woodpecker  is  found  in  thickly  wooded 
districts.  It  is  about  eighteen  inches  long.  Its  general  color 
above  is  dull  greenish  black;  entire  crown,  from  the  base  of 
the  bill  to  well  developed  occipital  crest,  scarlet  red ;  a  white 
streak  below  the  eye ;  under  wing-coverts  and  sides  of  body 
tinged  with  sulphur-yellow. 

The  red-headed  woodpecker  is  found  abundantly  in  some 
parts  of  the  country,  but  it  is  not  common  in  New  England. 
Its  head  and  neck  are  all  round  crimson  red,  margined  by  a 
narrow  crescent  of  black,  on  the  upper  part  of  the  breast ; 
back,  primary  quills,  and  tail,  bluish  black ;  under  parts,  gen- 
erally, a  broad  band  across  the  middle  of  the  wing  and  rump, 
white.  Length,  9 1  inches. 

There  are  several  other  species  of  woodpecker  mentioned  as 
rare.  The  habits  of  all  are  similar.  They  excavate  holes  in 
trees  for  their  nests.  Their  food  is  chiefly  insects  and  grubs, 
varied  by  fruit  and  Indian  corn. 

The  spotted  sandpiper  is  widely  spread  through  North 
America,  every  pond  or  stream  having  two  or  three  pairs 
breeding  on  its  shores.  It  may  be  described  in  a  general  way, 
as  brownish  olive-green  above,  spotted  with  black ;  beneath, 
white,  spotted  with  black ;  outer  tail-feathers,  primaries  and 
secondaries,  tipped  with  white, 


WOODPECKERS.  41 

The  sandpipers  all  have  long  slender  bills,  and  rather  long 
legs.  They  build  their  nests  on  the  ground,  and  search  for 
their  food,  which  generally  consists  of  the  larvae  of  aquatic 
insects,  along  the  edges  of  salt  or  fresh  water. 

The  belted  kingfisher.  Head  with  a  long  crest;  above, 
blue ;  beneath,  pure  white ;  a  band  across  the  breast,  and  the 
sides  of  the  body  under  the  wings,  blue  like  the  back.  The 
female  and  young,  with  a  chestnut  belly-band,  and  the  sides 
of  the  same  color.  Length,  about  12  f  inches. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    WREN. 

"  I  SAW  Billy  Wren,  this  week/'  said  I,  as  we  gath- 
ered for  our  fifth  lesson,  at  Johnny's  and  Sidney's 
house.  "  Do  you  know  him  ?  He  is  a  jolly  fellow, 
and  he  was  looking  for  a  tenement." 

"Billy  Wren,"  giggled  Johnny,  nearly  falling  off 
his  seat.  "  Billy  Wren,  what  a  funny  name  !  " 

"  Yes,  it  is  a  funny  name  for  a  bird,  I  know ;  but 
it  just  suits  him,  for  he  is  a  funny  little  bird.  He 
is  shorter  and  rounder  than  the  chippy,  and  would 
answer  very  well  to  the  description  of  a  '  little  brown 
bird.'  He  is  as  lively  as  a  cricket,  and  goes  hopping 
about,  jerking  his  tail,  and  scolding  if  he  happens  to 
see  a  cat.  He  builds  in  holes  in  trees,  or  in  bird- 
houses.  I  have  brought  a  pattern  of  the  kind  of 
house  he  likes  the  best,  thinking  that  you  boys  might 
like  to  make  one.  You  see,  it  has  four  sides  and  a 
sloping  roof,  just  like  our  house,  and  a  front  door- 
step. The  door  is  a  round  hole,  not  more  than  an 
inch  in  diameter,  because  if  it  is  larger,  the  English 
sparrow  can  get  in,  and  drive  poor  Billy  away. 

42 


THE    WREN.  43 

Billy  doesn't  seem  to  care  for  windows,  and  he  even 
builds  up  his  nest  half  across  the  doorway,  so  that 
very  little  fresh  air  gets  in. 

"  We  have  heard  a  wren  singing  in  our  neighbor- 
hood for  several  days,  and  at  last  my  father  made  a 
house  like  this,  and  nailed  it  up  in  the  pear  tree  near 
the  door.  It  was  not  half  an  hour  before  Billy 
found  it.  He  seemed  quite  delighted,  flew  on  to  the 
roof,  then  on  to  the  doorstep, '  peeked  '  into  it,  and  all 
around,  and  then  tried  to  go  in.  But,  —  was  it  not  too 
bad  ?  —  the  door  was  not  quite  large  enough  !  You 
see,  we  were  so  afraid  the  hole  would  be  too  large 
that  we  had  made  it  a  little  too  small.  Billy  tried  it 
several  times,  but  at  last  had  to  give  it  up  and  go 
away.  Just  as  soon  as  he  was  gone  father  went  up 
and  made  the  entrance  a  trifle  larger.  It  was  not 
long  before  Billy  came  back  again,  acting  as  if  that 
was  such  a  nice  little  house  he  couldn't  bear  to  give 
it  up.  How  surprised  he  was  to  find  that  he  could 
enter  with  ease !  He  popped  in  and  out  a  half-dozen 
times  as  quick  as  winking,  as  if  to  say,  '  Dear  me,  I 
never  saw  a  hole  grow  as  this  one  does !  I  wonder 
if  I  made  a  mistake  about  it  before  ?  It's  a  snug 
little  house.  Just  my  size,  and  I  like  it.'  Then  he 
went  up  on  the  roof  and  sang  a  song.  After  that  he 
went  inside  and  picked  up  every  chip,  brought  them 


44 


MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 


WREN. 


out,  and  dropped  them  overboard.  Two  days  after, 
he  brought  Jenny  Wren  to  see  the  house.  '  Just  the 
prettiest,  neatest  cottage  that  ever  was,'  he  said. 
But  Jenny,  for  some  reason  or  other,  did  not  like  it ; 

we  think  probably  because 
it  was  too  near  the  house, 
and  now  they  are  building 
in  a  retired  corner  of  the 
orchard."  Then  I  told 
them  the  story  which  is 
found  in  the  next  chapter. 
"  Now,  I  have  something 
to  show  you,"  I  said,  open- 
ing a  box,  which  the  class  had  been  eying  with 
curious  glances,  all  the  time  that  I  had  been  talking. 
I  held  up  a  bright  red  bird,  with  black  wings.  "  I 
found  it  dead  in  the  woods.  Isn't  it  handsome  ? 
It  is  a  scarlet  tanager.  Can  you  remember  that 
name  ?  A  pair  built  in  the  woods  behind  our  house 
last  summer,  and  we  used  to  see  them  going  a  long 
distance  to  get  silk  from  caterpillars'  webs  to  line 
their  nests.  The  female  is  yellow  and  brown,  with 
no  red  on  it  at  all,  so  that  you  would  not  know  it 
was  the  same  kind  of  bird." 

"  Pleath,  Mitheth  May,"  lisped  six-year-old  Sidney 
(he  always  called  me  Mrs.  May),  "  pleath,  Mitheth 
May,  mayn^t  I  have  the  pretty  bird  to  keep  ?" 


THE    WREN.  45 

"  I  am  sorry  I  cannot  give  it  to  you,  Sidney,  but 
it  is  beginning  to  spoil  now.  I  only  kept  it  to  show 
to  you,  then  I  thought  I  should  throw  it  away." 

"  Let's  bury  it !  Let's  bury  it  now !  "  shouted 
Johnny.  "  Come  on,  we  are  going  to  have  a  funeral 
in  our  garden." 

Away  to  the  garden  we  went  with  a  rush.  Johnny 
fetched  a  trowel,  and  Sidney  the  big  coal  shovel,  and 
they  both  began  to  dig  as  fast  as  they  could,  while 
the  older  boys  who  could  not  get  a  shovel,  found 
fault  with  their  work,  and  teased  for  a  chance. 
When  the  hole  was  deep  enough,  I  handed  over  the 
bird  wrapped  in  a  paper. 

"  Where's  the  box,  Miss  May  ? "  asked  Johnny, 
much  grieved.  "  I  can't  bury  it  without  a  coffin." 

"  Oh  yes,  you  can,"  said  Tom.  "  This  is  well 
enough,  and  the  box  is  at  the  house.  We  can't  wait. 
Hurry  up ! " 

"  No,  I  can't  bury  it  without  a  coffin.  Must  I,  Miss 
May  ?  You  make  them  wait." 

He  put  the  bird  in  my  hand,  and  ran  to  the  house 
as  fast  as  his  short  legs  could  carry  him,  to  get  the 
box. 

When  the  tanager  was  safely  buried,  and  the  grave 
decorated  with  flowers  by  *the  girls,  we  started  for  a 
walk  to  the  pasture.  The  boys'  four-year-old  sister 


46  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

Alice  asked  if  she  might  go,  too,  and  was  very  happy 
when  I  said  that  she  might.  We  walked  down  the 
street,  stopping  a  moment  to  look  at  the  swallows 
on  Uncle  Daniel's  barn,  and  then  across  a  field,  going 
single  file  in  a  furrow,  so  that  the  farmers  would 
not  scold  us  for  treading  down  their  grass,  crawled 
through  a  fence,  and  were  in  a  delightful  over-grown 
pasture.  First,  we  sat  down  on  a  bank,  so  that  Alice 
might  rest.  A  few  feet  in  front  of  us  was  a  thicket 
of  bushes.  Into  it  came  hopping,  chipping,  and  scold- 
ing at  us,  with  a  mouthful  of  dry  grass  for  its  nest, 
a  tiny  summer  yellowbird,  so  near  that  we  could  see 
the  faint  red  streaks  on  its  breast. 

"  See  'ittle  canary,"  whispered  Alice. 

"  Go  away,  go  away,"  chipped  the  bird.  "  Oh 
dear,  those  people  won't  move,  so  I  shall  have  to  go 
to  my  nest,  anyway,"  and  she  dived  into  a  bush.  In 
a  moment  she  flitted  out  again ;  we  peeped  in  and 
saw  the  dainty  nest  half  made.  Through  the  tangle 
of  hawthorn  and  alder  bushes  we  scrambled,  lifting 
Alice  over  the  rough  places.  Lois  fell,  and  nettled 
her  wrist  badly. 

"Look  out,"  I  called;  "do  not  touch  the  poison 
ivy.  That  three-leaved  vine  is  it." 

"How  does  it  feel  to  be  poisoned  by  it?"  asked 
Johnny. 


THE    WREN. 


47 


"  Oh,  it  itches  and  burns  so,  that  you  would  not 
want  to  try  it  more  than  once." 

"  I  gueth  I  mutht  have  touched  it,"  said  Sidney ; 
"  ray  neck  itches  now.  Don't  you  think  I  have, 
MithethMay?" 

"  No,  I  don't,  my  boy ;  you  would  not  feel  it  so 
soon.  Now  run  along,  and  let  us  get  out  of  this." 

The  open  part  of  the 
pasture,  into  which  we 
soon  came,  was  full  of 
scrubby,  wild  apple  trees 
in  bloom  ;  the  grass  was 
blue     with     violets     in 
places,    or    white    with 
innocents  and  anemones. 
Here  the   children   had 
the  happiest  time,  gath- 
ering handfuls  of  flowers.     We  discovered  a  robin's 
nest  in  the  low  crotch  of  an  apple  tree,  where  we 
could  easily  look  into  it,  and  see  the  four  very  blue 
eggs. 

The  red-winged  blackbirds  flew  overhead,  display- 
ing their  gay  shoulder  knots,  and  showing  much 
alarm  at  our  nearness  to  their  nests.  But  they  were 
safe  enough,  for  the  bushes  which  held  their  homes 
stood  in  hollows  full  of  water. 


RED-WINGED    BLACKBIRD. 


48  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

V 

"  There's  a  canary,  sure,"  cried  Johnny,  as  a  yel- 
low bird,  with  black  crown,  wings,  and  tail,  flew  past 
us. 

"  They  sing  something  like  a  canary,  too,"  said 
Lois,  "  so  we  always  called  them  wild  canaries. 
What  are  they  really  ?  " 

"  They  are  goldfinches.  Sometimes  they  are  called 
thistle-birds,  because  they  are  very  fond  of  thistle 
seeds.  Later  in  the  summer  we  can  see  them  in 
small  flocks,  after  the  nesting  season  is  over.  See 
them  now,  flying  up  and  down,  up  and  down,  like 
the  woodpeckers,  saying,  as  they  go,  '  cheet-a-chee, 
cheet-a-chee.'  ' 

After  a  joyous  hour  in  our  wild  retreat,  we  came 
out  at  the  farther  gate,  near  the  bridge.  Here  I  said 
good  by ;  for  my  path  led  up  the  hill,  and  theirs  in 
the  other  direction.  They  all  declared  it  was  the 
best  walk  they  ever  had. 


FOR   THE   TEACHER. 

THE  WREN   FAMILY. 

The  common  and  familiar  wrens  are  much  alike  in  disposi- 
tion, manners,  and  habits ;  the  house-wren  may  be  taken  to 
typify  these. 

The  house-wrens  are  sprightly,  fearless,  and  impudent  little 
creatures,  apt  to  show  bad  temper  when  they  fancy  themselves 


THE    WREN.  49 

aggrieved  by  cats  or  people,  or  anything  else  that  is  big  and 
unpleasant  to  them;  they  quarrel  a  good  deal,  and  are  par- 
ticularly spiteful  towards  martins  and  swallows,  whose  homes 
they  often  invade  and  occupy.  Their  song  is  bright  and 
hearty,  and  they  are  fond  of  their  own  music ;  when  disturbed 
at  it  they  make  a  great  ado  with  noisy  scolding.  Part  of 
them  live  in  reedy  swamps  and  marshes,  where  they  hang 
astonishingly  big,  globular  nests,  with  a  little  hole  in  one  side, 
on  tufts  of  rushes,  and  lay  six  or  eight  dark-colored  eggs ;  the 
others  nest  anywhere,  in  shrubbery,  knot  holes,  hollow  stumps, 
and  other  odd  nooks.  Nearly  all  are  migratory;  one  is  sta- 
tionary ;  one  comes  to  us  in  fall  from  the  north,  the  rest  in 
spring  from  the  south.  Insectivorous  and  very  prolific,  laying 
several  sets  of  eggs  each  season.  Plainly  colored,  the  browns 
being  the  usual  colors ;  no  red,  blue,  yellow,  or  green  in  any 
of  our  species.  —  COUES. 

Summer  yellowbird:  Color,  golden  yellow;  back,  olive  yel- 
low ;  breast  and  sides  streaked  with  orange  brown ;  wings 
and  tail  dusky,  yellow  edged.  This  little  bird  is  one  of  the 
large  family  of  warblers,  many  of  which  are  brilliantly  colored. 
Few  warblers  nest  with  us,  but  most  of  them  can  be  seen  in 
May  as  they  are  journeying  northward.  I  have  seen  ten 
different  species  in  one  season,  flitting  about  the  apple  trees 
in  bloom. 

The  red-winged  blackbird  is  referred  to  in  the  note  to 
Chapter  VIII. 


CHAPTER   VI. 
BILLY  WREN'S  HOUSEKEEPING. 

IT  was  house-hunting  times,  and  Billy  Wren  was 
in  search  of  a  tenement.  Billy  Wren  was  a  gay 
young  bachelor,  and  it  was  a  little  surprising  to  his 
neighbors  that  he  thought  of  settling  down,  he  was 
so  fond  of  a  roving  life.  Then  he  was  so  particular 
about  his  house.  Big  enough  for  a  family  he  said  it 
must  be,  and  not  a  bit  too  big.  When  he  inspected 
the  hole  in  the  apple  tree  Mr.  Bluebird  asked  him 
why  he  didn't  ask  Mrs.  Wren  what  she  thought 
about  it. 

"  There  isn't  any  Mrs.  Wren,"  said  Billy,  pertly, 
putting  his  head  on  one  side.  "  There  isn't  going  to 
be  any  Mrs.  Wren  till  I  know  where  I'm  going  to 
keep  her." 

Now  under  the  eaves  of  Farmer  Miflin's  corn  house 
was  the  perfection  of  a  cottage.  It  belonged  to  the 
Miflin  children,  and  they  rented  it  for  a  song  a  day. 
Mr.  Billy  spent  a  day  in  examining  it,  tried  a  few 
sticks  in  it  to  see  how  it  would  look  when  furnished, 
and  finally  concluded  to  accept,  at  the  owners'  terms. 

50 


BILLY  WREN'S  HOUSEKEEPING.  51 

He  said  that  he  had  rarely  seen  a  house  that  he  liked 
so  well,  for  the  door  was  just  exactly  large  enough 
for  him  to  go  through,  and  that  was  the  great  trouble 
with  tenements  in  these  days,  the  doors  were  so  large 
that  you  never  could  tell  who  would  be  coming  in. 
Early  the  next  morning  he  put  in  some  furniture,  — 
pine  twigs  and  dried  grass,  —  and  after  having  spent 
some  time  in  arranging  it,  at  last  had  it  just  to  his 
mind.  Then  he  went  out  to  advertise  for  Mrs.  Wren. 
How  do  you  suppose  he  did  it  ?  Having  selected  a 
twig  on  the  apple-tree,  where  he  had  a  good  view  of 
the  country  round,  he  first  gave  a  short  song,  as  pay- 
ment »of  his  rent,  then  went  on  to  tell  of  himself  and 
his  fortunes.  All  day  he  sat  and  sang  without  a  sign 
of  success  ;  but  he  was  not  discouraged. 

"  Of  course,"  he  said  to  himself,  cheerfully,  at 
night,  "  one  couldn't  expect  such  good  luck  the  first 
day." 

So  the  next  morning  he  re-arranged  his  furniture, 
and  went  at  his  trilling  again. 

"  Really,"  he  exclaimed,  as  the  second  day  passed 
and  never  a  sign  of  a  young  lady  wren,  "  this  is 
strange ;  but,  after  all,  it  isn't  so  bad.  This  apple 
tree  is  a  nice  place  to  sit  in  the  breeze,  with  the  bees 
humming  around.  I  don't  think  I'd  mind  singing  a 
week." 


52  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

At  the  end  of  the  week,  however,  he  couldn't  under- 
stand where  the  Wren  family  kept  themselves.  He 
supposed  they  must  be  taking  a  vacation  down  by 
the  river  or  up  on  the  hills ;  but  he  did  think  the 
first  of  June  was  time  for  them  to  return  to  their  old 
haunts. 

But  still  he  sang  as  gayly  as  ever,  "  Oh,  where  art 
thou,  my  Jenny?"  and  kept  as  light  a  heart  as  he 
could.  The  next  morning  he  was  rewarded  by  seeing 
a  little  brown  bird  flitting  coyly  about  in  the  out- 
skirts ;  so  he  politely  invited  her  down  to  see  his 
humble  dwelling,  and  was  as  attentive  as  could  be. 
She,  however,  was  hard  to  please,  said  his  house  was 
small  and  stuffy,  and  that  she  couldn't  think  of 
liking  a  bird  who  put  on  so  many  airs,  and  directly 
went  away. 

The  Miflin  children,  who  had  been  watching  all 
this,  were  very  sorry  for  their  little  friend ;  but  he 
said  it  was  foolish  to  care  about  such  a  bold-faced 
jig,  and  tuned  up  again.  Another  week  of  throat 
music  and  another  cousin  turned  up. 

"  Patient  waiters  are  no  losers,"  warbled  Billy,  as 
Miss  Jenny,  quiet  and  modest,  said  shyly  that  she 
thought  the  cottage  was  very  cozy,  and  she  would 
like  to  stay.  Then  what  a  jubilee  overflowed  from 
the  brave  little  bird's  heart !  It  did  not  matter  to 


BILLY    WREN'S    HOUSEKEEPING.  53 

him  that  his  bride  gently  but  decidedly  removed 
every  stick  so  carefully  put  in  by  him,  and  brought 
others  to  suit  herself.  He  eagerly  sought  other  sticks 
which  he  thought  would  please  her  better;  but  she 
promptly  threw  these,  too,  on  the  ground,  as  if  to 
say  :  "  What  do  men  know  about  housekeeping ! " 

So  he  finally  let  her  do  it  her  own  way,  and  sat  on 
the  tree  near  by  and  sang  as  if  his  heart  was  bursting 
with  joy.  This  pleased  himself  and  Mrs.  Wren  and 
the  Miflin  children ;  and,  as  even  the  neighbors  ap- 
proved, it  was  called  a  very  happy  match. 

One  thing  only  did  Dorothy  Miflin  criticise.  She 
said  she  thought  that  little  enough  fresh  air  could  get 
in  through  that  very  small  hole  which  served  as  door 
and  window,  without  building  up  the  nest  half  across 
the  opening.  However,  as  Mrs.  Wren  paid  no  more 
regard  to  her  than  she  did  to  her  husband,  nothing 
could  be  done  about  it. 

Soon  there  were  little  birds  in  the  nest,  and  so  gay 
Billy  Wren  became  a  man  of  family,  wrote  his  name 
William  Wrenne,  Esq.,  and  spent  most  of  his  time, 
when  he  was  not  handing  in  a  fat  green  worm  to  the 
children,  in  scolding  the  yellow  cat,  Caesar. 

Caesar  took  a  more  than  common  and  neighborly 
interest  in  the  family.  He  would  climb  up  on  the 
roof  and,  hanging  over  the  eave-t rough,  lie  there  by 


54  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

the  hour,  stretching  out  a  long  arm  toward  the  nest 
(which  fortunately  he  could  not  reach),  unmindful  of 
the  threats  and  persuasions  of  Miss  Dorothy,  who 
stood  anxiously  below. 

It  has  been  noticed  that  the  smaller  the  house  the 
more  children  there  are  in  it.  It  was  a  great  day  in 
the  Miflin's  back  yard  when  the  Wren  family  came 
out.  Little  Dorothy  and  Brother  Ben  and  Caesar  had 
spent  much  time  wondering  how  many  babies  there 
were  ;  and  as  the  door  was  so  small  that  only  one 
could  stick  out  a  head  at  a  time,  there  were  no 
means  of  knowing. 

It  had  been  noticed  that  Father  and  Mother  Wren 
had  not  been  to  feed  their  hungry  brood  that  morn- 
ing, but  stayed  back  in  the  apple  tree. 

The  biggest  brother  had  been  looking  out  of  the 
door  for  some  time,  waiting  for  his  breakfast,  and 
thus  shutting  in  all  the  other  brothers  and  sisters, 
who  were  just  as  hungry  as  he  was. 

All  at  once  there  seemed  to  be  a  revolution  in  the 
nest,  a  sudden  push  from  behind,  and  the  greedy 
brother  was  outside  on  the  piazza.  But  there  was 
another  one  in  his  place. 

All  the  morning  what  an  anxious  time  it  was ! 
One  after  another  being  pushed  out  by  those  behind 
was  coaxed  over  to  the  tree  by  the  old  birds,  and  led 


BILLY  WREN'S  HOUSEKEEPING.  55 

by  short  flights  out  of  Caesar's  reach.  When  the 
sixth  bird  —  and  every  one  was  larger  and  plumper 
than  Mr.  Wren  Senior  —  had  made  his  appearance 
from  the  tiny  house,  the  wonder  of  the  Miflins  knew 
no  bounds. 

"  They  must  have  been  squeezed  awfully/'  said 
Dorothy,  "for  Mamma  Wren  used  to  go  in,  too,  and 
that  made  seven  !  " 

"  Pooh ! "  replied  Mr.  Wren,  tossing  his  head, 
"  that's  nothing  to  what  we  could  do  if  we  tried." 


CHAPTER   VII. 

SCREECH-OWLS. 

"  I  HAVE  such  a  nice  story  to  tell  you  this  after- 
noon," I  said,  on  the  pleasant  June  Saturday  when 
we  met  for  our  sixth  lesson.  "  But  first  I  want  to 
ask  how  many  of  you  have  seen  an  owl  ?  " 

"  I've  seen  lots  of  pictures  of  them,"  said  Tom ; 
"  and  I  could  draw  one  if  I  had  a  piece  of  paper." 

"  I've  seen  them  made  out  of  peanuts,"  whispered 
little  Martha  to  me.  Martha  was  too  shy  to  speak 
out  loud  in  the  class,  but  I  know  she  paid  attention, 
for  she  always  gave  her  mother  a  full  account  as 
soon  as  she  got  home. 

"  I  saw  one  once,"  said  Cicely ;  "  at  least,  I  think 
'twas  an  owl.  'Twas  a  big  gray  and  white  bird,  and 
'twas  in  a  milliner's  window  with  a  white  cap  on  its 
head.  I  presume  most  likely  'twas  a  stuffed  one." 

"Well,"  said  I,  "I  think  you  all  have  some  idea 
of  how  an  owl  looks,  and  you  know  they  fly  in  the 
night.  There  are  a  great  many  kinds,  and  the  one 
I  am  going  to  tell  you  about  is  one  of  the  smallest. 
It  is  called  the  little  screech-owl,  but  the  scientific 

50 


SCREECH-OWLS. 


57 


name  in  the  books  is  Megascops  asio,  so  I  will  call 
him  Mr.  Scops,  as  that  name  suits  him  very  well. 

"  It  was  a  lovely,  balmy  night  last  April  when  Mr. 
Scops  sat  on  the  fence 
and  sang  what  he  thought 
one  of  his  sweetest  songs  \£ 
to  his  little  bride.  The 
white  mist  lay  along  the 
river,  and  came  creeping 
up  in  all  the  hollows. 
A  crescent  moon  shone 
faintly  on  the  pair  as  they 
bobbed  and  courtesied  to 
each  other  on  the  fence. 
I  dare  say  you  and  I 
would  not  have  thought 
much  of  Mr.  Scops's  voice, 
as  if  he  had  lost  his  best  friend.  You  would  think 
he  wras  in  the  depths  of  sorrow,  but  he  was  really 
very  happy,  for  he  was  telling  Mrs.  Scops  that  he 
had  just  discovered  such  a  fine,  large  hole  up  in  the 
elm  tree  close  by.  Mrs.  Scops  was  afraid  —  just  a 
little  bit  afraid  —  that  it  was  not  safe  enough,  being 
right  over  the  road  where  people  were  all  the  time 
passing.  But  Mr.  Scops  said  (very  wisely,  as  he 
thought)  that  owls  could  see  by  night  and  not  by 


SCREECH-OWL. 


It  sounded  as  mournful 


58  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

day?  whereas  it  was  just  the  other  way  with  men ; 
they  could  see  by  day  and  not  by  night.  So  he 
thought  they  were  in  no  danger  of  being  seen,  and 
'  Mrs.  Scops  was  sure  he  must  know  best.' 

"All  the  evening  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Harwood,  who  lived 
in  the  house  behind  the  fence,  had  been  hearing 
strange  noises.  Mr.  Harwood  was  sure  it  was  a  dog 
whimpering,  but  Mrs.  Harwood  was  equally  certain 
that  it  was  a  baby  crying.  At  last,  Mr.  Harwood 
came  out  to  see  what  was  the  matter.  As  he  opened 
the  door,  the  two  birds  flew  softly  from  the  fence  up 
into  the  elm-tree  ;  for  owls  have  such  downy  feathers 
they  can  fly  without  making  the  slightest  sound. 
Mr.  Harwood  looked  up  and  down  the  street  and 
listened  for  about  five  minutes.  Then  he  went  into 
the  house  and  said  they  had  both  made  a  mistake. 
There  was  no  dog,  no  baby,  no  anything  outside 
except  fog.  Meanwhile,  the  two  big-eyed  birds  went 
up  and  looked  at  the  hole  in  the  dead  branch  of  the 
elm.  It  had  been  made  by  some  woodpecker,  but 
the  wood  had  rotted  away  till  it  was  large  enough 
for  two  or  three  families.  Here,  before  long,  were 
laid  four  round  white  eggs,  and  after  that  came  four 
downy  heaps  with  wide  mouths.  But  no  one  knew 
of  it,  and  no  one  saw  the  old  birds  come  and  go. 
The  noises  in  the  hollow  branch  grew  louder  night 


SCREECH-OWLS.  59 

after  night,  and  the  Harwoods  began  to  say  that 
they  must  be  haunted ;  they  never  heard  such 
strange  sounds  before.  But  the  really  perilous 
time  came  when  the  young  birds  pushed  and 
scrambled  out  of  the  hole,  and  climbed  from  one 
bough  to  another  all  over  the  big  tree.  It  was 
just  after  sunset,  and  not  yet  dark,  when  they  did 
this.  Their  mother  begged  them  to  be  quiet,  but 
the  more  she  cautioned  them  the  louder  they 
chattered. 

"Now  Some  One  was  passing  under  the  tree  just 
as  one  of  the  owlets  slid  down  a  low  hanging 
branch  almost  to  the  tip  of  it,  which  was  only  a 
few  feet  above  her  head.  This  Some  One  heard 
a  strange  sound.  She  thought  it  was  the  grating 
of  machinery.  She  wondered  if  a  lawn-mower  could 
make  such  a  noise.  She  stopped  and  looked  all 
around.  At  last  it  seemed  to  be  right  over  her 
head,  and  she  looked  up  to  £ee  a  strange  creature 
scrambling  up  the  rough  bark.  It  looked  like  a 
ball  of  yellowish  down,  with  a  great  round  head  and 
no  tail  at  all.  She  hardly  thought  it  was  a  bird  at 
first,  but  hearing  the  same  harsh  sound  repeated  in 
different  parts  of  the  tree,  she  looked  higher  up  and 
saw  the  old  birds  flying  noiselessly  back  and  forth. 
Whenever  they  came  to  one  of  the  young  birds  there 


60  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

was  the  greatest  snapping  of  bills  and  grating  and 
chattering.  For  several  evenings  this  same  person 
came  to  see  the  owl  party.  One  rainy  night  they 
came  out  earlier  than  usual,  and  one  of  the  old  birds 
flew  so  near  her  that  she  could  see  the  back  was 
a  rusty  red  color.  By  this  she  knew  that  they 
were  screech-owls.  I  think  the  person  that  found 
those  owls  had  a  great  piece  of  good  luck,  don't 
you?" 

"  'Twath  you,  Mitheth  May,"  cried  Sidney. 

"  Yes  ;  'twas  you,  Miss  May,  wasn't  it  ? "  shouted 
all  the  children  at  once. 

"  I  wonder  how  you  guessed  !  All  who  would  like 
to  see  those  owls  hold  up  their  hands." 

Every  hand  was  raised  and  voices  too. 

"  Very  well,  then,  we  won't  take  any  walk  this 
afternoon ;  but  you  may  all  go  home  now  and  ask 
your  mothers  if  you  can't  meet  in  front  of  Mr. 
Harwood's  at  sunset  to-night.  The  birds  may  be 
gone,  but  they  were  there  last  night ;  and  so  I  hope 
we  shall  see  them." 

At  sunset  we  met  at  the  appointed  place.  All 
was  quiet,  and  the  robins  were  singing  their  cheer- 
ful evening  song.  The  children  stared  at  the  hole 
in  the  elm,  and  then  began  to  walk  about  impa- 
tiently. 


SCREECH-OWLS.  61 

"  How  soon  do  you  suppose  they  will  come  out  ? 
Isn't  it  most  time  for  them  now  ? "  they  repeated 
again  and  again. 

"  What  is  that  little  gray  thing  over  on  that  door- 
step?" cried  Lois,  pointing  across  the  street. 

"  Oh,  it  is  the  owl  —  and  there  is  a  cat  coming 
round  the  corner  !  " 

Ten  pairs  of  feet  stirred  the  dust  in  the  road,  and 
a  triumphant  shout  urged  me  on. 

"  It's  a  teenty  little  owl,  and  he's  tight  asleep." 

Drawn  up  in  a  fluffy  ball  sat  the  baby  owl,  with 
his  eyes  pinched  oh !  so  close  together,  although  the 
sun  had  been  down  for  several  minutes.  But  when 
Lois  touched  him  softly  on  the  back,  he  opened  his 
great  human-looking  eyes  suddenly,  and  snapped  his 
bill  in  a  way  that  made  us  all  jump  back.  We 
heard  an  answering  click  over  our  heads,  and  looked 
up  to  see  the  mother  owl  swooping  down  at  us 
from  the  branches  of  the  maple,  snapping  her  bill 
viciously,  then  retiring  to  the  thick  foliage  to  say, 
"  Hoo  !  hoo  !  "  in  a  soft  but  startled  manner. 

"  What  shall  we  do  ?  We  can't  leave  him  here 
for  the  cats  to  get." 

"  You  take  him  up,  Miss  May." 

"  Dare  you  touch  him  ?  " 

"  Oh,  don't,  Miss  May.     He  will  bite  you." 


62  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

I  seized  the  ball  of  mottled  gray  down  gently  but 
firmly  from  behind,  and  carried  it  across  the  road, 
with  the  old  birds  sweeping  back  and  forth  close  to 
our  heads. 

"  What  shall  we  do  with  him  ?  " 

"  Let  us  put  him  up  in  the  tree." 

"  Oh  no,  let  us  keep  him." 

"  What !  and  sit  up  all  night  to  feed  him  ?  " 

"  Oh,  let  us  feed  him  now.  Mrs.  Harwood  will 
give  us  some  meat." 

So  some  scraps  of  meat  were  brought  and  offered 
to  little  Scops,  but  he  did  not  seem  to  know  what 
they  were.  Then  I  opened  his  mouth  and  stuffed 
some  meat  into  it,  which  he  swallowed  greedily. 

"  That's  the  way  the  old  birds  feed  him.  They 
fill  his  mouth,  and  all  he  has  to  do  is  to  swallow. 
His  bill  is  quite  soft  yet ;  he  couldn't  take  hold  of 
anything  for  himself." 

"  I  do  not  see  how  he  can  snap  it,  if  it  is  so  soft," 
said  Cicely. 

"  Nor  I  either.  It  sounds  as  hard  as  iron,  does  it 
not  ?  Now  let  us  give  him  back  to  his  mother." 

A  chair  was  brought,  and  I  reached  up  as  far  as 
I  could  and  put  his  feet  on  the  rough  bark.  He 
caught  hold  and  climbed  like  a  cat  to  the  crotch 
of  the  tree,  where  we  left  him  calling  for  his 
mother. 


SCREECH-OWLS.  63 

"  Oil,  wasn't  it  fun  !  "  said  one  and  all  as  they  bid 
me  good-night. 

FOE   THE   TEACHEK. 

The  owls  are  easily  recognizable  from  their  striking  char- 
acteristics, chief  of  which  are  their  cat-like  eyes,  and  the  disc 
of  short,  rigid  feathers  which  encircle  the  face. 

TJie  horned  owls  are  so  called  from  erect  tufts  of  feathers 
which  somewhat  resemble  a  cat's  ears. 

The  great  horned  owl  is  from  twenty  to  twenty-five  inches 
in  length,  variable  in  color  from  nearly  white  to  dark  brown, 
usually  wjth  the  upper  parts  dark  brown,  every  feather  mottled. 
It  breeds  in  inaccessible  places  in  deep  forests. 

The  long-eared  owl  is  somewhat  similar  to  the  preceding  in 
color  and  habits,  but  is  smaller. 

The  screech-owl  is  a  horned  owl.  It  is  often  called  the 
mottled  owl  or  red  owl.  A  peculiarity  of  this  bird  is,  that 
some  individuals  are  a  rusty  red,  some  gray.  Scientists  are 
not  yet  agreed  as  to  the  cause  of  this  difference  of  plumage. 

The  subfamily  of  gray  owls  is  without  ear  tufts,  and  in- 
cludes : 

The  barred  owl :  Color,  brown  and  white,  in  wavy  bars  and 
stripes.  Length,  about  twenty  inches. 

The  Acadian  owl,  or  saw-whet  owl  (so  called  from  its  note), 
is  the  smallest  member  of  the  family,  measuring  only  1\  inches 
in  length. 

Among  the  day  owls  is  the  snowy  owl,  which  is  a  rather 
common  winter  visitor  in  the  Northern  States.  Its  plumage  is 
pure  white,  with  frequently  a  few  imperfect  spots  or  bands  of 
dark  brown  above,  and  a  few  irregular  bars  of  the  same  below. 
The  snowy  owl  hunts  both  by  daylight  and  twilight. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

CUCKOO    AND    COW-BUNTING. 

THE  Saturday  before  this  lesson  I  asked  the  class 
to  make  a  list  of  all  the  birds  seen  by  them  during 
the  week. 

"  So  I  suppose  you  are  prepared  with  a  list  as 
long  as  your  arm/'  I  said  to  Tom,  while  we  were 
waiting  for  the  girls,  who  were  late. 

"Birds  were  not  very  thick  this  week,"  replied 
Tom,  "  and  I  didn't  have  any  time  to  look  for  'em, 
either.  I  had  to  go  to  school/'  as  he  handed  me  a 
paper. 

"  Oh,  what  an  excuse !  Had  to  go  to  school ! 
Where  were  your  eyes  before  school,  and  after  school, 
and  on  your  way  to  school  ?  Let  us  see  what  you 
have  —  crow,  robin,  rooster,  sparrow,  canary.  Five 
birds ;  that  is  better  than  nothing,  but  I  am  afraid 
you  will  not  be  at  the  head  of  this  class.  Besides, 
we  don't  count  tame  birds,  like  the  rooster  and 
canary.  Now,  where' s  Sidney's  list  ?'" 

"  I  thaw  theven,  Mitheth  May,"  said  Sidney,  as 
he  gave  me  his  paper,  on  which  the  names  were 
half  written  and  half  printed. 


CUCKOO    AND    COW-BUNTING.  65 

"  Robin,  crow,  blackbird,  chippy,  woodpecker,  blue- 
bird." 

"  And  another  one  ath  big  ath  a  robin,  all  yellow 
and  red  and  black.  He  came  in  our  backyard,  and 
got  thome  thringth  to  make  a  netht  with.  Thome- 
body  thaid  twath  a  golden  robin,  but  I  thaid  I  wath 
going  to  athk  Mitheth  May." 

"Very  well  done,  my  boy;  that  was  an  oriole. 
Oh,  here  come  the  girls,  all  running  except  Martha, 
who  is  carrying  something." 

They  burst  in  all  out  of  breath.  "Martha's  got  a 
bird!  Martha's  got  a  bird!"  they  shouted/  "She 
found  it  this  morning.  It's  all  dead,  though."  Here 
Martha  came  in,  with  the  bird  wrapped  in  a  paper. 

"  It's  a  real  live  dead  bird,  Miss  May.  When  I 
opened  our  porch  door  this  morning  I  found  it  right 
on  our  step.  A  real  live  dead  bird." 

"What  is  it?  what  do  you  suppose  killed  it?" 
they  all  inquired  at  once. 

It  was  a  long  bird,  with  long  wings  and  tail,  brown 
above  and  white  beneath,  with  a  curved  black  bill, 
which  was  broken. 

"It  is  a  cuckoo,  a  black-billed  cuckoo.  It  is  a 
cowardly  bird.  Sometimes  it  sneaks  up  to  a  nest 
and  eats  the  eggs,  when  the  other  birds  are  not 
looking ;  but  it  is  readj  to  run  the  moment  it  is 


66 


MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 


discovered.  I  should  not  wonder  if  it  was  being 
chased  this  morning  and  flew  against  your  house, 
Martha,  so  hard  that  it  was  killed  by  the  blow. 
That  is  the  only  way  I  can  account  for  the  broken 
bill." 

"I  think  I  read  somewhere,"  said  Johnny,  " that 
the  cuckoo  lays  its  eggs  in  other  birds'  nests." 

"  Not  this  cuckoo,  Johnny.     The  European  cuckoo 

does  that.  Our  bird  is  a 
useful  one,  for  he  eats 
the  tent-caterpillars  that 
are  so  injurious  to  the 
apple  trees,  so  we  must 
try  to  forgive  him  for  his 
taste  for  fresh  eggs.  We 
have  a  bird,  though,  that 
does  lay  its  eggs  in  other 
birds'  nests ;  it  is  called 
the  cow-bunting  or  cow-blackbird.  It  is  in  size  be- 
tween a  song-sparrow  and  a  robin,  and  is  of  a  rusty 
black  color.  It  generally  chooses  a  smaller  bird's  nest 
for  the  place  to  leave  an  egg.  The  poor  little  chip- 
pies very  often  have  an  egg  imposed  on  them.  The 
baby  cow-bird  is  so  much  larger  than  the  other  birds 
in  the  nest  that  he  soon  pushes  them  out,  then  he 
has  it  all  to  himself,  and  all  the  worms  go  into  his 


CUCKOO. 


CUCKOO    AND    COW-BUNTING.  67 

great  mouth.  One  summer,  a  chippy  who  built 
near  our  door,  had  one  of  these  great,  overgrown 
babies  to  take  care  of.  He  looked  like  a  young 
giant,  he  was  so  much  larger  than  his  foster-mother. 
He  looked  large  enough  to  take  care  of  himself,  but 
he  would  just  sit  and  call  for  food,  and  his  tiny 
mother  would  work  all  day  to  fill  his  big  stomach. 
Now,  girls,  where  are  your  lists  of  birds  ?" 

Two  or  three  had  seven  each,  Lois  had  twelve, 
and  Kate  twenty-one. 

"  Why,  Kate,  did  you  see  a  peacock  ?  " 

"  Oh,  no'm.  Did  you  mean  just  the  birds  I  saw  ? 
I  thought  you  meant  the  names  of  all  that  I  knew." 

So  that  counted  Kate  out,  and  Lois  stood  at  the 
head  of  the  class. 

"  You  see,"  said  I,  "  that  you  do  not  have  to  kill 
the  birds  to  find  out  their  names.  It  is  a  great  deal 
wiser  way  just  to  watch  them,  isn't  it  ?  " 

"  If  I  had  a  bow'n  arrer,  I  guess  I  could  shoot  a 
hundred  birds,"  boasted  Johnny. 

"  Yes ;  but  would  you  if  you  could  ?  That  is  the 
question.  I  hope  you  would  not  want  to ;  but  I 
don't  understand  boys.  I  don't  see  why,  just  be- 
cause they  are  boys,  they  should  like  to  be  always 
killing  things.  When  we  think  of  the  poor  little 
birds,  with  the  crows  and  the  hawks,  and  the  butcher- 


68  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

birds  and  owls  all  after  them,  and  the  blue  jays  and 
cuckoos  stealing  their  eggs,  it  seems  a  shame  that 
boys  must  be  added  to  their  enemies.  The  birds  of 
prey,  as  those  birds  that  eat  other  birds  are  called, 
have  to  kill  in  order  to  live ;  but  what  a  waste  of 
life  it  is,  when  boys  take  to  shooting  birds  just  to 
show  how  smart  they  are,  or  collect  eggs  just  to  see 
how  many  they  can  get.  It  is  not  wrong  for  the 
crows  and  hawks  to  do  such  things,  although  it 
seems  dreadful  to  us,  but  it  is  wicked  and  cruel 
for  people  to  do  it ;  and  I  wish  I  could  make 
every  boy  ashamed  of  himself  that  ever  did  such  a 
thing." 

"  I  found  a  netht  oncth,  Mitheth  May,  all  by 
mythelf ;  it  had  four  little  thpeckled  eggth  in  it,  and 
I  never  touched  one  of  them." 

"  And  besides  being  wicked  in  itself,  you  know  it 
is  against  the  law  to  kill  singing  birds  or  rob  their 
nests." 

This  moved  the  older  boys,  and  they  began  to 
protest  "  that  they  never,  never  did  such  a  thing, 
and  they  never,  never  would." 

"  Of  course  not.  I  hope  my  bird  class  would 
know  better  than  that.  Now,  my  lecture's  done. 
Come,  let  us  go  to  walk." 

"  Boys   are   so    horrid,  aren't    they,  Miss    May  ? " 


CUCKOO    AND    COW-BUNTING.  69 

said  Cicely,  as  we  set  out ;  "  they're  always  kill- 
ing something.  I  wouldn't  be  so  mean." 

"  I  have  seen  little  girls,"  said  I,  "  and  big  ones, 
too,  who  wore  birds'  wings,  and  sometimes  whole 
birds,  on  their  hats.  That  seemed  to  me  just  as 
bad  as  for  the  boys  to  kill  birds." 

"  Oh,  but  we  don't  kill  them,  you  know,"  said 
Cicely,  quickly. 

"  Somebody  must  kill  them,  though ;  and  isn't  it 
just  as  wicked  to  buy  the  wings  of  some  one  who 
has  done  it  ?  How  would  you  feel,  if  any  one  should 
kill  your  canary  because  the  wings  were  pretty  to 
wear  on  a  hat  ?  " 

"  Now  you're  catching  it,"  said  Tom,  in  great  glee. 
"  You  are  not  any  better  than  the  boys,  after  all." 

"  Yes,  now  I  have  scolded  both  of  you.  I  think 
it  was  only  because  you  were  thoughtless.  I  shall 
ask  you  to  sign  the  pledges  of  the  Audubon  society. 
There  are  three  of  them :  not  to  kill  any  wild  bird, 
except  to  be  used  for  food ;  not  to  destroy  eggs  or 
nests  of  any  bird ;  not  to  wear  any  feathers,  except 
those  of  the  ostrich  and  domestic  fowl." 

"  Feathers  are  awful  pretty  in  a  hat,  but  I  sup- 
pose I'll  have  to  give  'em  up,"  sighed  Cicely. 

"I  promise  you  I  won't  wear  any  more  in  my 
hat,"  said  Tom. 


70  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS, 

"  Will  you  take  the  other  pledges,  too,  Tom  ?" 

"I  never  did  hit  a  bird  yet,  so  I  guess  it's  safe 
enough  to  promise." 

"  No,  I  don't  want  any  such  promises.  I  want 
you  to  agree  not  to  try  to  hit  them." 

"  Well,  I'll  promise  not  to  hit  them  unless  they 
get  right  in  my  way  so  that  I  can't  help  it,"  said 


BOBOLINK. 

Tom,  who  hated  to  say  right  out  that  he  would  do 
a  thing. 

By  this  time  we  had  come  to  a  row  of  apple  trees 
along  the  meadow  road.  In  the  top  of  one  of  these 
a  bird,  about  as  large  as  a  robin,  was  singing  the 
j oiliest  song,  the  notes  coming  so  fast  that  they 
nearly  tripped  each  other  up. 


CUCKOO   AND    COW-BUNTING.  71 

At  the  end  of  the  song,  he  flew  down  to  a  tall 
weed  and  sat  there  swaying  to  and  fro. 

"All  black  and  white,  isn't  he?"  said  Kate. 
"  White  on  the  back  of  his  head  and  his  shoulders 
and  rump." 

"  Lookth  ath  if  he  had  a  bald  head,"  said  Sidney ; 
"  there  he  goth  again." 

The  jolly  bird  flew  over  a  grass  field,  singing  as 
he  went,  poised  a  moment,  then  dived  into  the  tall 
grass. 

"  It  is  a  bobolink,"  said  I ;  "  don't  you  know  the 
bobolink?" 

"  Bobolink,  bobolink,  spink,  spank,  spink,  is  what 
it  says  in  the  reading  book,"  said  Johnny.  "  Is  this 
the  bird  it  meant  ?  " 

"  Yes,  '  hidden  and  safe  is  that  nest  of  ours,'  he 
says,  and  he  has  probably  gone  to  it  now.  But  you 
need  not  think  it  is  just  where  he  dropped  down ;  he 
is  too  smart  for  that.  He  will  creep  along  under  the 
grass  to  it,  and  you  might  hunt  the  whole  field  over 
and  not  find  it ;  so  we  won't  trample  down  the 
grass  to  look  for  it.  There  comes  another  one,  and 
his  mate  with  him.  Yes,  that  yellowish  brown 
bird  is  his  mate,  although  she  does  not  look  at  all 
like  him.  Did  you  ever  think  why  the  females  are 
so  much  duller  in  color  usually,  than  the  males  ?  It 


72  MY    SATUEDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

is  so  that  they  need  not  easily  be  seen  as  they  sit  on 
the  nest,  or  go  and  come  with  food  for  the  young. 
It  is  all  very  nice  to  wear  gay  clothes,  but  it  is  much 
more  dangerous  for  birds  at  least,  for  they  would  be 
so  much  more  quickly  seen  by  their  enemies. 

"  The  bobolink,  the  blackbirds,  and  the  orioles  all 
belong  in  the  same  family. 


MEADOW-LARK. 


"  Another  bird  which  builds  in  the  grass  is  the 
meadow-lark.  Perhaps  you  know  him.  He  has  a 
handsome  yellow  breast,  with  a  black  necklace,  and 
is  a  little  larger  than  a  robin.  He  sometimes  weaves 
a  roof  of  grass  for  his  nest  and  makes  a  winding 
covered  passage  to  it.' 


CUCKOO    AND    COW-BUNTING.  73 


FOE   THE   TEACHER. 

The  family  of  starlings  contains  many  familiar  birds.  They 
are  bobolink,  meadow-lark,  orioles,  blackbirds. 

The  general  color  of  the  bobolink  (also  called  reed-bird  and 
rice-bird)  is  black ;  the  nape,  brownish  cream  color ;  a  patch  on 
the  side  of  the  breast,  back  and  rump,  white ;  the  outer 
primaries  sharply  margined  with  yellowish  white ;  the  tail- 
feathers  margined  at  the  tips  with  brownish  ash.  Its  change 
of  color  in  the  autumn  is  described  in  the  chapter  on  migra- 
tion. 

The  meadow-lark  is,  above,  dark  brown ;  the  feathers  mar- 
gined with  brownish  white ;  exposed  portions  of  wings  and  tail 
with  transverse  dark  brown  bars;  beneath,  yellow,  with  a 
black  crescent  on  the  upper  part  of  the  breast;  sides,  pale 
reddish  brown,  streaked  with  blackish.  Length,  101  inches. 

There  are  two  orioles. 

The  Baltimore  oriole,  called  also  golden  robin  and  hangnest, 
is  best  known :  Color,  head  all  round  and  to  middle  of  back, 
scapulars,  wings,  and  upper  surface  of  tail,  black ;  rest  of  under 
parts,  rump,  and  terminal  portion  of  tail-feathers,  orange  red; 
edges  of  wing-quills,  with  a  band  across  the  tips  of  the  greater 
coverts,  white.  Length,  7|-  inches. 

The  female  is  much  less  brilliant,  the  black  of  the  head  and 
back  being  generally  replaced  by  brownish  yellow. 

The  orchard-oriole  is  more  rare  in  New  England.  It  is 
of  about  the  same  size  as  the  preceding  species.  Color,  head 
and  neck  all  round,  wings,  back,  and  tail-feathers,  black ;  rest 
of  under  parts,  lower  part  of  back  to  tail,  brownish  chestnut ; 
a  narrow  line  across  the  wing,  and  the  extreme  outer  edges 


74  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

of  quills,  white.  Like  the  Baltimore  oriole,  it  has  a  loud, 
rich  voice,  and  its  song  is  longer  and  more  varied. 

Cow-blackbird,  called  also  cow-bunting  and  cow-bird :  Color, 
head,  neck,  arid  upper  half  of  breast,  light  chocolate  brown ; 
rest  of  body  lustrous  black,  with  a  violet  purple  gloss  next  to 
the  head,  of  steel  blue  on  the  back,  and  of  green  elsewhere. 
Female,  light  olivaceous,  brown  all  over,  lighter  on  the  head 
and  beneath.  Length,  eight  inches.  It  has  a  peculiar  guttural 
note  which  cannot  really  be  called  a  song. 

Swamp  blackbird  or  redwing  blackbird :  General  color,  uni- 
form lustrous  velvet  black,  with  a  greenish  reflection ;  shoul- 
ders and  lesser  wing-coverts  of  a  bright  crimson  or  vermilion 
red.  Female,  brown  above,  the  feathers  edged  or  streaked 
with  brown  and  yellowish ;  beneath,  white  streaked  with 
brown;  forepart  of  throat  tinged  with  brownish  yellow. 
Length,  9|-  inches.  They  arrive  early  in  the  spring,  and 
congregate  in  flocks  in  the  tree-tops,  uttering  their  well-known 
note  of  "  quonk  a  ree." 

Of  the  two  grackles,  the  crow-blackbird,  or  purple  grackle, 
is  the  more  social  in  its  habits.  Color,  head  and  neck,  all  well- 
defined  steel-blue ;  the  rest  of  the  body  with  varied  reflections 
of  bronze,  golden  green,  copper,  and  purple.  Female  similar 
and  duller.  Length,  thirteen  inches. 

The  rusty  grackle  is  in  general  color  black,  with  purple 
reflections.  Female,  dull  brown.  Length,  9^-  inches.  This 
more  retiring  bird  is  not  uncommon  in  the  spring  and  fall 
migrations,  but  is  never  common,  and  retires  to  high  latitudes 
to  breed. 

While  the  blackbirds  do  considerable  damage  to  the  grain- 
fields  in  the  fall,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  they  do  great 
service  in  the  spring  by  destroying  harmful  insects.  Perhaps 


CUCKOO    AND    COW-BUNTING.  75 

the  good  done  at  one  season  offsets  the  harm  done  at  another, 
—  who  knows? 

The  yellow-billed  cuckoo  is  quite  rare. 

The  black-billed  cuckoo  is  abundantly  distributed.  They 
are  similar  in  size  and  color,  the  most  noticeable  difference 
being  in  the  color  of  the  bill,  which  gives  the  name  to  each 
species.  The  black-billed  cuckoo  is  described  as  follows : 
Color,  bill,  entirely  black ;  upper  parts  generally  of  a  metallic, 
greenish  olive,  ashy  towards  the  base  of  the  bill.  Beneath, 
pure  white,  with  a  brownish  yellow  tinge  on  the  throat. 
Length,  about  twelve  inches.  Its  note  is  tuk,  tuk,  tiik,  repeated 
very  fast,  or  /coir,  kow,  kow,  more  slowly.  In  the  south  it  is 
called  the  "rain  crow,"  as  its  call  is  said  to  predict  rain. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

FLYCATCHERS. 

THE  eighth  meeting  of  our  class  was  at  Martha's 
house,  and  her  five-year-old  brother  Robert  was 
proud  enough  to  come  in  and  take  his  seat  with  the 
rest  of  us.  He  was  very  anxious  to  tell  what  he 
knew  about  birds  and  his  sister,  who  sat  beside  him, 
had  to  whisper  to  him  a  great  many  times  that  he 
must  keep  still. 

"  There  are  three  kinds  of  flycatchers,  that  I  am 
going  to  tell  you  about  to-day,  and  I  will  begin  with 
the  smallest.  He  is  called  the  least  flycatcher  and 
is  smaller  even  than  the  chipping-sparrow.  He  is 
a  plain  brownish  gray,  or  grayish  brown,  above,  ashy 
white  on  the  breast,  and  tinged  with  yellow  under- 
neath. He  sits  on  the  fence  and  says  '  chebec,' 
jerking  his  head  back  at  the  same  time,  then  darts 
off  to  catch  an  insect.  From  this  note  he  gets  his 
common  name  of  chebec." 

Robert,  feeling  that  it  was  time  he  put  in  a  word, 
burst  out,  "  I  saw  a  little  brown  bird  yest'day." 

"  What   do  you    suppose   he   means   by  '  a   little 

76 


FLYCATCHERS.  77 

brown  bird '  ?  "  said  the  boys  to  each  other,  scorn- 
fully. 

"  I  guess  he  means  a  chippy,"  said  Martha  to 
me,  apologetically. 

Robert  subsided,  and  I  continued  my  talk  about 
the  flycatchers. 

"  The  next  in  size  looks  very  much  like  the  least 
flycatcher,  but  is  as  large  as  a  song-sparrow.  It 
comes  early  in  the  spring,  and  we  are  all  glad  when 
we  hear  it  calling  a  girl's  name  —  " 

"  Phoebe,"  said  Lois. 

"  Yes,  that  is  it ;  and  when  he  is  excited  he  raises 
a  crest  on  his  head.  This  bird  builds  on  rafters 
under  sheds,  sometimes  close  to  houses." 

"  A  pair  built  under  our  back  porch  last  summer," 
said  Kate ;  "  and  they  used  to  sit  on  the  clothes-line 
all  the  time,  jerking  their  tails." 

"  The  largest  flycatcher  of  the  three  is  such  a  loud- 
spoken  bird  he  cannot  have  escaped  your  notice. 
He  builds  in  the  tops  of  apple  trees  usually,  and  is 
always  looking  out  for  enemies.  I  call  him  the 
policeman  bird,  for  the  moment  he  spies  a  crow,  or 
hawk,  he  gives  the  alarm,  and,  in  a  moment,  a  dozen 
or  more  of  them  are  chasing  the  offender,  pouncing 
down  on  his  back,  and  tormenting  him,  till  he  is  glad 
to  get  out  of  the  way." 


78  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

"Oh,  you  mean  the  king-bird,"  said  Tom;  "I  did 
not  know  it  was  a  flycatcher.  It  does  look  some 
like  the  phoebe,  only  larger.  I  saw  one  once  chasing 
a  crow,  and  he  just  lighted  on  the  old  crow's  back, 
and  took  a  ride." 

"  Yes  ;  how  excited  they  look  with  their  crests  up  ! 
If  you  had  a  king-bird  in  your  hand,  and  should 
part  the  crest,  you  would  find  a  flame-colored  spot 
hidden  by  the  outer  feathers.  I  once  had  the  good 
fortune  to  come  close  to  two  king-birds  who  were 
fighting,  when  that  spot  showed  on  one  of  them  like 
a  live  coal.  It  is  a  fitting  crown  for  a  brave  king 
of  birds. 

"  There  are  birds  of  another  family  which  catch 
insects,  and  are  somewhat  like  the  flycatchers  in 
coloring.  I  refer  to  the  vireos,  of  which  there  are 
several  kinds.  They  are  all  nearly  of  the  same 
size,  a  little'  smaller  than  the  phoebe,  olive  brown 
above  and  grayish  white  beneath.  They  are  slen- 
derer than  the  flycatchers,  have  smaller  heads,  are 
more  retiring,  and  have  softer  voices.  Some  of 
them  have  a  sweet  warble." 

Robert  had  been  looking  at  me  intently  for  two 
minutes,  and  he  now  raised  his  hand. 

"  I  know  where  a  chip  bird's  got  its  nest." 

"  What's  a  chip  bird  ? "  asked  Torn,  in  his  most 


FLYCATCHERS. 


79 


superior  tone.  "  I  presume  you  mean  a  chipping- 
sparrow,  don't  you  ?  " 

Poor  Robert  looked  so  downcast  that  I  hastened 
to  tell  him  that  he  might 
show  me  the  nest,  and  we 
all  went  out  on  the  front 
porch  to  see  it  in  a  crotch 
of  the  trumpet-creeper  that 
was  trained  upon  the  pillar. 

"  Shall  we  go  to  see 
Miss  Mary  Bradley 's  tame 
blue  jay  ?  "  I  asked,  as  we 
started  up  the  street. 

Oh  yes,  oh  yes.  They 
all  wanted  to  see  it,  and 
would  I  please  tell  them 
about  it.  So,  as  we  walked 

along,  I  told  them  how  Miss  Mary  came  to  have  it. 
Her  brother  found  it  on  the  ground  in  their  yard, 
early  one  morning.  It  was  a  helpless  baby  then, 
could  not  fly  at  all,  and  the  wonder  was  how  it  came 
there,  for  there  was  no  nest  near.  Miss  Mary  put 
it  in  a  basket,  and  fed  it  with  bread  and  milk,  and, 
as  soon  as  it  could  fly,  it  would  come  straight  to  her 
lap  and  cuddle  in  her  hand,  every  time  she  sat 
down.  Dick,  as  she  calls  him,  hates  to  be  put  out 


Upper  Fig.     RED-EYED   VIREO. 
Lower  Fig.    CEDAR-BIRD. 


80  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

of  doors,  the  other  birds  torment  him  so.  Blue  jays, 
you  know,  eat  other  birds'  eggs,  and  so,  of  course,  the 
smaller  birds  are  very  much  afraid  of  them.  As  soon 
as  Dick  is  put  out  in  the  horse-chestnut  tree,  it  is  the 
signal  for  all  the  birds  in  the  neighborhood  to  gather 
and  try  to  chase  him  away." 

As  we  neared  the  house  we  heard  a  great  com- 
motion in  an  apple  tree  in  the  orchard.  A  king-bird, 
with  crest  erect,  was  screaming  and  darting  in  and 
out.  Some  smaller  birds  were  scolding  with  all 
their  might.  As  we  came  nearer,  we  found  that 
these  were  a  pair  of  red-eyed  vireos  and  a  chipping- 
sparrow.  Some  robins  came  and  added  their  loud 
voices  to  the  clamor,  and  Dick  flew  in  great  haste 
to  the  porch,  where  the  other  birds  dared  not 
follow. 

Miss  Mary  came  out,  and  we  asked  her  to  call 
him  down ;  but  he  declined  to  come  when  so  many 
people  were  present. 

"  I  know  what  will  bring  him,"  she  said,  and 
threw  down  her  thimble.  In  a  twinkling  he  was  at 
her  feet,  ha.d  seized  the  thimble  and  flown  away 
with  it. 

"  Now  I  must  watch  where  he  hides  it.  He  is 
just  like  a  jackdaw  about  stealing  bright  things." 

When  Dick  had  safely  tucked  the  stolen  treasure 


FLYCATCHERS. 


81 


between  the  slats  of  the  blind,  Miss  Mary  gave 
Robert  some  corn  to  hold  in  his  hand,  as  he  sat  on 
the  step,  while  the  rest  of  us  retired  to  a  little  dis- 
tance. Soon  the  handsome  bird  flew  down  to  the 
floor,  and  hopped  along  cautiously,  with  his  head 
now  on  one  side,  now  on  the  other ;  picked  a  grain 


BLUE  JAY. 


of  corn  from  Robert's  hand,  then  rolled  up  a  bright 
eye  to  see  if  the  little  boy  was  looking,  then  snatched 
another  and  another  till  they  were  all  gone.  Robert 
held  his  breath  while  it  lasted,  but  the  others  clapped 
their  hands  softly  with  delight. 

"  Isn't  he  perfectly  lovely,  all  blue  and  white ! " 


82  MY    SATUKDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

"  Just  as  cute  as  he  can  be  !  " 

"I  should  not  think  such  beautiful  birds  would 
be  so  naughty.  What  makes  them  steal  eggs  and 
corn?" 

"  Dick  will  never  be  so  bad.     He's  too  pretty." 
"  Handsome  is  that  handsome  does,  say  I." 
"Dick  is  a  rogue,"  said  Miss  Mary.     "  He  loves  to 
tease  the  cats,  flying    down  in  front  of  them,  and 
tempting  them   to    chase  him.     He  will  come  to  a 
bad  end  some  day,  I  am  afraid,  if  he  doesn't  learn 
caution." 

Dick  followed  us  for  some  distance  down  the 
street.  Once,  when  no  one  was  looking  at  him,  he 
flew  down  suddenly  and  struck  Kate's  hat,  and  was 
back  in  the  tree,  almost  before  she  could  turn  around. 
Then  he  chuckled  to  himself,  as  if  it  were  a  great 
joke.  Just  as  we  were  thinking  that  he  meant  to  go 
all  the  way  home  with  us  he  suddenly  disappeared, 
and  we  saw  no  more  of  him. 


FOR   THE   TEACHER. 

FLYCATCHERS. 

The  wood-pewee  is  similar  to  the  phoebe  in  coloring,  but  is 
a  little  smaller,  the  phoebe  being  seven  inches  in  length,  the 
wood-pewee  6J.  It  prefers  the  solitudes  of  the  deep  forests, 


FLYCATCHERS.  83 

and  places  its  nest  on  the  limb  of  a  tree,  generally  at  a 
height  of  about  twenty  feet  from  the  ground.  Its  note  is 
more  plaintive  and  drawling  than  the  phcebe's,  sounding  like 
the  syllables  "  pe-weeee,"  "  pe-weeee." 

Other  flycatchers  rarely  seen  in  New  England :  The  great 
crested  flycatcher;  length,  8|  inches.  The  olive-sided  fly- 
catcher ;  length,  7-J-  inches.  The  Traill's  flycatcher ;  length, 
nearly  six  inches.  The  small  green-crested  flycatcher ;  length, 
o±  inches. 

The  vireos  build  pensile,  beautifully  constructed  nests  in 
the  crotches  of  small  branches.  The  only  exception  to  the 
general  scheme  of  color  which  I  have  mentioned,  is  found  in 
the  yellow-throated  vireo,  the  throat  and  breast  of  which  are 
sulphur  yellow. 

The  red-eyed  vireo  frequents  the  trees  in  the  neighborhood 
of  houses.  Its  pleasing  warble,  constantly  repeated,  has  given 
it  the  name  of  the  preacher. 

There  are  three  other  species :  the  warbling  vireo,  the 
white-eyed  vireo,  the  solitary,  or  blue-headed,  vireo. 


CHAPTER   X. 

THE    BIRD    CLASS    AT    SCHOOL. 

As  I  was  walking  slowly  home  through  the  quiet, 
shady  streets  after  our  last  lesson,  I  was  overtaken 
by  Miss  Graham,  the  teacher  of  most  of  my  bird 
class.  I  gave  her  a  warm  greeting,  for  I  was  always 
glad  to  meet  her,  and  she  at  once  began  to  talk  about 
the  bird  class. 

"You  don't  know  how  much  the  children  are 
learning,"  said  she.  "  I  have  often  wished  I  knew 
as  much  about  birds  as  you  do,  for  I  have  so  many 
questions  about  them  put  to  me  that  I  can't  answer. 
Now,  when  there  is  any  such  matter  to  be  decided,  I 
call  for  the  bird  class,  and  they  can  usually  tell  all 
about  it.  One  day,  when  I  arrived  at  school  in  the 
morning,  the  children  came  running  to  meet  me. 

"  '  Oh,  teacher  !  oh,  Miss  Graham  !  there's  an  awful 
cunning  little  bird  in  the  school-room.' 

"  Sure  enough,  there  was  a  dear  little  bird  flying 
against  the  windows,  which  had  been  closed  for  fear 
it  should  escape. 

"  '  Oh,  teacher,  what  kind  is  it  ?  Can't  we  keep  it 
here  all  the  morning  ? '  was  the  cry. 

84 


THE    BIRD    CLASS    AT    SCHOOL.  85 

66 '  Oh  no,  my  dears ;  the  poor  thing  would  beat 
itself  to  death  against  the  glass.  We'll  just  wait 
till  some  of  the  bird  class  come,  and  they  will  tell 
us  the  name  of  it ;  then  we'll  let  it  go.' 

"  Tom  was  the  first  one  to  appear,  and  the  question 
was  at  once  put  to  him.  He  looked  very  wise,  and 
considered  the  subject  a  few  moments ;  then  he 
said,  — 

" 6  I'm  not  sure,  Miss  Graham,  but  I  think  it's  a 
summer  yellowbird.' 

"  Lois  came  next,  and  the  instant  she  saw  the 
little  visitor,  she  exclaimed,  '  I  know ;  it's  a  summer 
yellowbird.' 

"  So.  as  two  of  the  class  agreed  on  it,  each  without 
knowing  what  the  other  had  said,  I  was  sure  they 
must  be  right,  and  we  opened  the  window,  and  let 
the  poor  frightened  little  creature  fly  away. 

"Yesterday  morning  we  had  a  great  excitement. 
Kobert  and  Alfred,  my  two  smallest  boys,  were  late 
to  school.  At  last  I  heard  them  puffing  and  panting 
up  the  stairs,  and  Robert,  with  flushed  cheeks  and 
shining  eyes,  walked  straight  up  to  me,  carrying 
carefully  in  his  two  hands  a  nest  with  a  young  robin 
in  it.  They  were  so  excited  they  were  all  of  a 
tremble,  and  both  chattered  at  once,  quite  forgetting 
the  disgrace  of  being  late. 


86  MY    SATUKDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

"  i  We  finded  the  nest  on  the  ground,  and  it  can't 
fly  at  all,  and  please  can't  we  keep  it  here  on  your 
desk,  and  feed  it  out  of  our  lunch  baskets  ? ' 

"So  I  put  the  nest,  with  the  bird  in  it,  on  my 
desk  where  they  could  all  see  it,  and  told  them  they 
must  be  very  good  if  I  let  it  stay.  They  really  did 
study  better  than  usual  that  morning,  only  looking 
at  robin  once  in  a  while,  as  he  stretched  up  his  neck 
and  opened  his  mouth,  as  if  for  food.  By  and  bye 
Johnny  put  up  his  hand,  and  asked  if  I  wouldn't 
take  the  bird  out  of  the  nest,  and  let  it  hop  around 
on  my  desk.  So  I  said  yes,  if  they'd  be  good.  The 
robin  had  hopped  around  the  desk  but  a  few  times, 
when  Lois  asked  if  I  wouldn't  please  put  him  on  the 
floor,  and  see  if  he  wouldn't  hop  down  the  aisles. 
So  again  I  said  yes,  if  they'd  learn  their  lessons 
better  than  usual.  Would  you  believe  it,  all  the 
morning  that  bird  hopped  about  among  the  seats,  and 
the  children  were  as  still  as  mice,  not  laughing  at  all, 
only  peeping  down  at  him,  when  he  came  close  to 
them.  At  recess  time  they  wanted  to  feed  him. 
The  boys  went  out,  and  soon  came  in  with  two  of 
the  biggest  angle  worms  I  ever  saw. 

" '  Oh,  don't  give  him  such  big  worms  as  that ! '  I 
cried. 

" ( Why,  don't  you   know,'    shouted   all   the  bird 


THE    BIRD    CLASS    AT    SCHOOL.  87 

class  in  chorus,  £  he  eats  sixty-eight  worms  as  big  as 
this  every  day/ 

"  Of  course  I  had  to  yield  to  the  bird  class,  and 
Master  Robin  gulped  down  the  worms  as  if  they 
were  nothing  at  all. 

"  At  noon  I  told  Rob  and  Alfred  to  take  the  bird 
back  where  they  found  it,  so  that  the  mother  could 
feed  it,  for  we  could  never  find  sixty-eight  worms 
a  day  to  fill  its  mouth." 

When  Miss  Graham  parted  with  me  she  gave  me 
a  composition  written  by  Lois,  and  it  is  so  good  that 
I  give  a  copy  of  it. 

THE  CHIMNEY-SWALLOWS. 

There  are  so  many  different  kinds  of  birds  that  I  cannot 
tell  you  about  all  of  them,  but  will  tell  about  as  many  as  I 
have  time.  I  will  tell  you  about  the  swallows  :  there  are  five 
different  kinds.  The  names  of  them  are  the  white-breasted 
swallow,  the  eave  or  cliff-swallow,  the  barn-swallow,  the  bank- 
swallow,  and  the  chimney-swallow.  Before  there  were  many 
houses  the  chimney-swallows  built  in  hollow  trees.  Every 
year  they  all  come  together  before  they  go  south.  One  night 
a  man  was  sitting  in  his  house,  and  heard  the  greatest  chirping 
out  doors.  He  did  not  know  what  it  was,  and  went  out  and 
found  it  came  from  a  hollow  tree.  The  next  night  he  got  a 
lantern  and  an  axe,  and  cut  a  hole  in  the  bottom  of  the  tree, 
and  put  his  head  in,  and  what  do  you  think  he  saw  ?  He  saw 
the  tree  was  packed  as  tight  as  it  could  be  with  chimney- 


88  MY    SATUKDAY    BIKD    CLASS. 

swallows.  We  once  had  chimney-swallows  in  our  chimney; 
but  papa  put  screens  over  the  chimney,  and  they  could  not  get 
in.  At  the  next  house,  the  same  side  as  we  live,  they  had 
chimney-swallows.  One  time  they  found  four  little  swallows 
that  had  fallen  down  the  chimney.  Two  or  three  big  ones 
have  flown  down  the  chimney  into  the  sitting-room.  The 
chimney-swallows'  feet,  or  claws,  are  very  small,  so  they  do  not 
use  them  very  much.  They  have  sharp  needles  like  on  their 
tails,  which  they  stick  into  the  chimney,  and  they  help  the 
swallows  to  climb  the  chimney. 

Lois  BANKS. 


CHAPTER   XL 

A    PICNIC. 

You  may  be  sure  that  on  the  day  when  the  class 
met  at  my  house  there  were  no  vacant  chairs. 
Since  the  second  time,  the  whole  class  had  never 
been  together  at  any  one  lesson.  But  when  I  told 
them  that  the  day  they  came  to  the  house  on  the 
hill  for  a  lesson,  they  might  bring  their  suppers  and 
picnic  in  the  grove,  I  saw  by  their  faces  that  all 
intended  to  be  there.  Little  Martha  told  me  several 
times  that  it  was  such  a  long  walk  she  was  afraid 
she  couldn't  come,  "  'thout  she  took  a  nap  in  the 
morning."  Even  Cicely,  who  didn't  care  whether 
she  came  every  time  or  not,  and  had  easily  found 
excuses  to  stay  away  a  number  of  times,  impressed 
it  on  Lois  that  she  could  never  forgive  her  if  she 
did  not  tell  her  when  the  picnic  was  coming. 

So  I  set  out  the  chairs  and  laid  out  my  great 
bird  books  on  the  table ;  for,  although  the  sky  was 
clouded,  I  had  no  doubt  that  I  should  have  a  class. 
Soon  a  farm-wagon  drove  up,  and  landed  a  half-crazy 
crew  at  my  door.  It  seemed  to  me  that  my  class 

89 


90  MY    SATURDAY    BIKD    CLASS. 

had  doubled  in  size,  and  I  tried  to  count  them.  I 
found  they  were  all  there  except  Bertram  (who  had 
only  been  present  at  the  first  two  lessons,  and  so  did 
not  dare  call  himself  a  member  of  the  class) ;  and, 
moreover,  there  were  three  extra  ones  —  Mary,  Ben, 
and  Robert,  younger  brothers  and  sister  of  two  of 
my  class. 

A  person  who  is  going  to  get  on  with  such  young 
folks  must  not  be  slow,  so  I  hurried  to  get  them 
seated,  and  began  my  lesson  at  once ;  telling  them 
first  that  they  must  be  sure  to  remember  that  the 
picnic  did  not  come  till  after  the  lesson.  We  began 
by  looking  at-  the  colored  plates  in  DeKay's  "  Birds 
of  New  York,"  asking  the  class  to  name  the  birds 
they  knew.  The  hawks  were  all  "  hen-hawks "  to 
them,  and  the  owls,  "  screech-owls." 

"  Have  you  ever  heard  of  this  bird,  the  whippoor- 
will  ?  " 

Instantly  the  boys  and  girls  joined  in  a  song  they 
had  learned  at  school. 

"  I  love  to  stray  by  the  wooded  rill 
Where  the  twilight  shadows  play, 
And  list  to  the  song  of  the  whippoorwill, 
As  he  sings  his  evening  lay. 

Chorus.  "Whippoorwil],  whippoorwill,  whippoorwill! 
List  to  the  song,  list  to  the  song  ! 
Whippoorwill,  whippoorwill,  all  the  way." 


A    PICNIC.  91 

"  That  is  very  pretty.  So  you  do  know  about  the 
whippoorwill,  and  now  you  see  how  he  looks,  with 
his  mottled  brown  back  and  his  great  hairy  mouth, 
wide  open  for  the  catching  of  small  insects  at  twi- 
light. Sometimes  he  will  sit  every  night  on  the 
front  door-step  of  some  lonely  farmhouse,  uttering 
his  plaintive  cry  of  '  whip-poor-will.' ' 

Kate  and  Lois  had  together  seen  a  wonderful 
bird,  which  they  began  to  describe.  "  As  large  as  a 
robin,  all  black  and  white,  with  a  pinky  red  spot  on 
the  breast  —  " 

"And  pink  under  the  wings,  too,"  said  Lois. 

"  No  sir,"  said  Kate ;  "  I  was  with  you  when  we 
saw  it,  and  /  didn't  see  any  pink, under  the  wings." 

"  I  did,"  said  Lois ;  "  and  when  it  flew  I  saw  it 
very  plain." 

"  Is  this  it  ?"  I  said,  as  we  came  to  the  picture  of 
a  rose-breasted  grosbeak. 

"  Yes'm,  that's  it." 

So  we  turned  to  the  description  and  found  that 
the  under  wing-coverts  were  rose-color,  just  as  Lois 
had  said. 

"So  much  for  bright  eyes.  This  is  the  bird  I  am 
going  to  talk  about  to  you  to-day." 

"  Oh,  a  bluebird  !  a  bluebird  !  "  exclaimed  all,  as 
they  looked  at  the  picture  of  a  small  dark  blue  bird, 


92  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

with  greenish  tints  on  the  throat,  and  brown  mark- 
ings on  wings  and  tail. 

"It  may  be  a  blue  bird,"  said  I,  "but  that  is  not 
the  name  of  it.  It  is  called  the  indigo-bird.  You 
see  that  is  a  darker  color  than  the  bluebird's.  The 
reason  why  I  tell  you  about  it  to-day  is,  because  a 
pair  of  these  birds  is  nesting  in  the  raspberry  bushes 
behind  the  house,  and  so  you  will  have  an  oppor- 
tunity to  see  them.  For  three  years  now  they  have 
built  there,  and  we  think  it  must  be  the  same  pair 
every  time.  When  I  first  discovered  the  nest,  the 
old  birds  were  much  afraid  to  have  me  come  near. 
But  now  they  know  I  won't  hurt  them ;  so  Mr. 
Indigo  sits  on  the^  top  of  the  apple  tree  and  sings, 
and  Mrs.  Indigo  looks  at  me  with  her  bright  black 
eyes,  but  does  not  move,  as  I  come  close  up  to  the 
nest.  I  wonder  how  they  are  wise  enough  to  learn 
that  I  am  their  friend  ;  for  they  do  not  mind  me  at 
all,  while  they  are  always  afraid  of  cats. 

"  Every  time  a  cat  comes,  the  birds  call  so  loud, 
that  we  run  from  the  house  to  see  what  is  the  mat- 
ter. Just  as  soon  as  we  get  there,  the  birds  stop 
scolding,  and  seem  to  be  satisfied  that  we  will  take 
care  of  them.  I  usually  seize  a  broom  and  tin  pan 
to  throw  at  the  cats ;  but  it  does  not  matter  how 
much  noise  I  make,  the  birds  seem  not  to  be  afraid 


A    PICNIC.  93 

at  all.  I  do  not  know,  though,  what  they  will  say 
to  so  many  children,  so  we  must  go  quietly/' 

We  tiptoed  out  to  the  bushes,  and  one  by  one  each 
child  pressed  forward  and  peeped  into  the  nest,  where 
four  pale  blue  eggs  were  lying. 

"Whath  that  little  yellow  brown  bird  in  the  pear 
tree?"  whispered  Sidney. 

"  Why,  that's  the  mother-bird." 

"  Tithn't  blue  at  all." 

"  No.  You  wouldn't  know  it  was  the  same  kind, 
would  you  ?  But  it  is,  and  you  see  she  is  quite 
anxious  about  her  nest." 

"  I  wish  the  father-bird  would  come  down  where 
we  could  see  him,  but  he  does  not  seem  to  care." 

"  Oh,  I  know  what  will  fetch  him."  I  ran  to  the 
house  where  we  kept  our  cat  confined  all  through 
bird-nesting  time,  and  brought  old  Tabby.  In  a 
moment  the  male  indigo-bird  flew  down,  almost 
within  reach,  scolding,  and  flying  back  and  forth  in 
a  great  state  of  excitement.  He  seemed  to  shine 
with  green  and  blue  lights,  and  looked  very  hand- 
some. When  he  had  been  admired  by  all,  I  took 
Tabby  back  to  her  quarters,  and  we  went  to  visit  the 
downy  woodpecker's  hole,  of  which  I  had  told  the 
story  before.  There  were  young  birds  in  the  nest, 
and  when  we  all  held  our  breaths  for  a  moment  we 


94 


MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 


DOWNY  WOODPECKER. 


thought  we  could  hear  them  "  chittering."  We 
were  in  luck  to  see  one  of  the  old  birds  fly  into  the 
tree,  eye  us  for  a  moment  from  behind  a  branch, 

then  fly  to  the  hole, 
and,  sticking  his  head 
in,  deliver  up  his 
mouthful  to  the  rav- 
enous youngsters. 

When  he  had  flown 
away,  the  boys  de- 
cided that  it  was  time 
for  the  picnic  to  begin,  and  started  for  the  grove, 
with  a  whoop. 

".Oh  dear,  it's  beginning  to  rain.  What  shall  we 
do?" 

The  grove  was  of  pine  trees,  standing  close  to- 
gether, and,  though  small,  was  dense. 

"  Get  your  umbrellas.  The  rain  won't  come 
through  the  trees  much." 

That  was  a  good  idea.  It  was  even  more  fun  to 
play  "puss  in  the  corner"  with  umbrella  in  hand 
than  it  was  without,  and  "  hide  and  coop"  was  made 
more  exciting  by  the  regulation  that  no  one  could  be 
caught  unless  the  head  was  seen. 

'Twas  a  great  pity  that  the  supper  in  the  grove 
had  to  be  given  up,  but  I  do  not  believe  we  could 


A   PICNIC.  95 

have  laughed  harder  than  we  did  as  we  sat  in  a  long 
row  on  the  piazza,  with  our  laps  full  of  good  things, 
and  ate  and  ate  as  people  at  picnics  always  do. 

After  we  had  feasted  till  we  could  feast  no  more, 
we  played  games  on  the  piazza,  for  the  grove  was 
now  become  too  damp. 

Acting  Words  was  called  the  best  game  of  the 
afternoon.  I  played  a  double  part  in  it.  First  the 
company  was  divided  into  two  sides.  Then  I  helped 
one  side  choose  a  word.  They  gave  a  word  that 
rhymed  with  the  chosen  one.  Then  I  went  over  to 
the  other  side  and  helped  them  to  act  words  to 
rhyme  with  the  one  given  them  until  they  found  the 
right  one.  Of  course  I  was  not  to  tell  one  part  what 
the  other  part  had  told  me. 

Little  Rob  (only  five  years  old)  was  quite  wild 
with  a  desire  to  act.  He  raced  back  and  forth,  say- 
ing, "Can't  I  do  .one?"  Soon  he  came  and  caught 
my  dress,  whispering,  with  a  most  earnest  face, 
"  Can't  I  just  go  and  pick  some  grass  and  take  in 
there  ?  Won't  that  be  a  word  ?  " 

"  I  do  not  know,  Rob  ;  what  word  will  it  be  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know,"  he  said,  shaking  his  head,  "  but 
can't  I  just  ?  " 

I  said  he  must  wait  until  I  thought  of  a  word  for 
him.  Soon  he  came  again.  <•  Can't  I,  Miss  May, 


96  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

can't  I  just  lie  down  and  kick  up  my  heels  ?  Won't 
that  be  a  word?" 

We  laughed  so  hard  that  I  was  afraid  his  feelings 
would  be  hurt,  so  I  hastily  gave  him  some  pebbles  to 
pile  up,  pretending  they  were  blocks.  He  did  not 
care  that  they  guessed  the  word  "  blocks  "  at  once, 
but  kept  on  building  for  half  an  hour,  seriously 
thinking  that  he  was  helping  on  the  game. 

At  six  o'clock  the  farm  wagon  reappeared  ;  the 
children  bundled  into  it,  under  an  army  of  umbrellas, 
all  shouting  "  good-night "  as  they  rattled  down  the 
road. 

I  am  not  sure  how  much  of  that  day's  lesson  they 
will  remember,  but  I  am  certain  that  they  will  never 
forget  that  they  had  a  grand  good  time  at  the  picnic. 


FOE   THE   TEACHER. 

The  buntings  belong  to  the  Sparrow  family,  which  contains 
a  large  proportion  of  our  more  familiar  birds.  Their  distin- 
guishing feature  is  a  stout  conical  bill,  suitable  for  eating 
seeds  or  buds. 

The  black-throated  bunting  is  abundant  in  the  states  east 
of  the  Mississippi,  but  is  rare  in  New  England. 

The  more  noticeable  markings  of  the  rose-breasted  grosbeak 
are  as  follows  :  upper  parts,  generally,  with  head  and  neck 
all  round,  glossy  black;  a  broad  crescent  across  the  upper 


A   PICNIC.  97 

part  of  the  breast,  axillaries  and  under  wing-coverts,  carmine ; 
rest  of  under  parts,  rump  and  upper  tail-coverts,  middle  wing- 
coverts,  spots  on  wings,  and  a  large  patch  on  the  ends  of 
the  inner  webs  of  the  three  outer  tail-feathers,  pure  white. 

Female.  Color:  Yellowish  brown  streaked  with  darker; 
head,  with  a  central  stripe  above  and  one  on  each  side, 
white;  beneath,  dirty  white,  streaked  with  brown  on  the 
breast  and  sides;  under  wing-coverts  and  axillaries,  saffron- 
yellow.  Length,  8£  inches. 

This  bird  is  a  not  very  common  inhabitant  of  New 
England,  yet  I  have  usually  seen  at  least  one  individual 
each  season.  It  is  a  fine  songster.  It  has  a  rich,  strong 
voice,  which,  in  its  first  notes,  reminds  one  of  an  oriole. 

It  nests  in  low  bushes  in  deep  woods.  Its  food  consists 
of  seeds  of  birches  and  alders,  various  birds  and  berries,  and 
occasionally  insects  and  worms. 

Indigo-bird.  Color:  Blue  tinged  with  ultramarine  on  the 
head,  throat,  and  middle  of  breast ;  elsewhere  with  verdigris- 
green  ;  wing-feathers  brown,  edged  externally  with  dull  bluish 
brown. 

Female.  Brown  above ;  whitish,  obscurely  streaked  or 
blotched  with  brownish  yellow  beneath.  Length,  about  5f 
inches. 

The  indigo-bird  has  a  short,  peculiar  song  which  it  utters 
at  intervals  throughout  the  entire  day.  Though  naturally  a 
shy  bird,  it  prefers  to  build  its  nest  in  the  vicinity  of  houses 
and  gardens  :  this  is  constructed  in  a  low  bush. 

In  the  woods  or  in  retired  localities  may  frequently  be 
seen  the  ground-robin,  towhee,  or  chewink.  The  first  name 
is  given  from  the  chestnut  color  on  the  sides  of  the  breast, 


98  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

which  gives  it  a  slight  resemblance  to  our  well  known  bird. 
The  two  latter  names  indicate  its  note. 

Color :  Upper  parts  generally,  head  and  neck  all  round,  and 
upper  part  of  breast,  glossy  black;  sides  of  the  breast  and 
under  the  wings,  light  chestnut ;  edges  of  outer  six  primaries 
with  white  at  the  base  and  on  the  middle  of  the  outer  web ; 
inner  two  tertiaries  also  edged  externally  with  white ;  tail- 
feathers,  black;  outer  web  of  the  first  with  the  ends  of  the 
first  to  the  third,  white. 

Female  with  the  black  replaced  by  brown.  Length,  8J 
inches. 

The  ground-robin  builds  upon  the  ground  and  seeks  its 
food  among  the  fallen  leaves,  where  it  is  almost  continually 
scratching. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

MIGRATION. 

MY  bird  class  held  one  meeting  in  the  fall  after 
vacation  was  over. 

"  Some  of  you  have  been  away/'  I  said,  as  I 
looked  around  at  the  smiling  faces. 

"Yes'm,"  said  Johnny;  "we  go  to  grandpa's  every 


summer." 


"  And  now,  just  as  you  are  settling  down  to  work, 
the  birds  are  getting  ready  to  start  on  their  travels." 

"  I  don't  see  what  the  birds  have  to  do  to  get 
ready,"  said  Kate  ;  "  can't  they  just  start  any  time  ? 
They  have  no  trunks  to  pack." 

"  No ;  but  some  of  them  put  on  travelling  dresses, 
just  as  we  do." 

"  Travelling  dresses  !     My,  how  funny !  " 

"  Yes ;  the  gay  bobolink  cannot  wear  his  black  and 
white  dress,  which  shows  so  clearly,  so  he  puts  on  a 
plain  brown  suit  like  his  wife's.  Then  he  changes 
his  name,  too.  When  he  gets  to  New  Jersey  he  is 
called  the  reed-bird,  because  .  he  and  his  fellows 
gather  on  the  reeds  in  the  marshes.  Farther  south 

99 


100 


MY    SATUKDAY    BIKD    CLASS. 


he  is  called  the  rice-bird,  because  he  is  so  fond  of 
eating  the  rice  as  it  grows  in  the  fields.  He  makes 
a  more  complete  change  of  dress  than  any  other 
bird  I  can  think  of  ;  but  several  kinds  are  duller 
in  plumage  in  the  winter,  and  you  know  the  young 

birds  are  hardly  ever  so 
brightly  colored  as  the  old 
ones  before  the  next  spring. 
Now,  why  do  you  think 
the  birds  go  south  ?  " 
66  Because  of  the  cold." 

• 

"  Then    why    do    some 
birds  stay  here  all  winter  ? " 
"  I  guess  their  feathers 
are  thicker." 

"  No,  I  don't  believe 
you  would  find  it  so.  Just 
think  a  moment." 

All  thought  very  hard  for  a  moment,  but  were 
just  about  to  give  it  up  when  Kate  said,  — 

"  Is  it  because  they  can't  get  anything  to  eat  ?" 
"  Yes,  that  is  one  of  the  chief  reasons  why  they 
go.     The  swallows  usually  leave  us  in  August,  and 
other  insect-eaters  go  early.     What  kinds  could  stay 
later?" 

"  Those  that  eat  seeds  ?  "  asked  Lois. 


SNOW   BUNTING. 


MIGRATION.  101 

"  Yes,  and  there  are  others.  In  the  winter  the 
snow  covers  the  ground,  and  the  insects  that  fly  in 
the  air  are  all  gone,  but  the  weeds  and  grasses  that 
stick  above  the  snow  are  full  of  seeds,  and  all  the 
tree  trunks  have  grubs  and  eggs  tucked  away  under 
their  bark." 

"  Oh  yes,  I  forgot  the  woodpeckers." 

"  And  the  sumac  bushes  are  full  of  berries  and 
sometimes  the  corn  in  farmers'  corncribs  is  where 
the  blue  jays  can  get  it.  So  we  can  always  have 
some  kind  of  feathered  friends  around  us.  Isn't  it 
strange  to  think  how  the  birds  all  over  the  country 
are  moving  somewhere  ?  The  crows  and  blue  jays 
are  the  only  ones  I  think  of  now  that  stay  in  the 
same  place.  How  do  you  think  they  can  go  so  far, 
and  what  keeps  them  up  in  the  air  ?  " 

"  Because  they're  so  little,"  said  Johnny. 

"  Oh  no,"  said  I.  "  If  you  had  a  stone  as  big  as  a 
robin  it  would  not  be  very  light  would  it  ?" 

"If  I  had  a  stone  ath  big  ath  a  robin  I  could 
throw  it  from  here  way  acroth  the  street,"  said 
Sidney. 

"  Yes ;  but  you  could  not  make  it  stay  in  the  air 
could  you  ?  The  little  birds  not  only  stay  up  in  the 
air,  but  fly  hundreds  of  miles.  That  is  because  their 
bones  are  hollow,  and  the  air  in  them  makes  the 


102  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

birds  very  light.  But  how  they  know  the  way  to 
go  so  far,  and  then  come  back  to  the  same  place 
every  year,  as  many  of  them  do,  we  cannot  tell. 

"  The   wild    geese    go    in    marching    order,    in    a 
straight  line,  with  their  captain  in  front,  or  in  two 


CANADA  GOOSE. 


lines,  like  the  letter  V,  with  the  leader  at  the  point. 
Stand  up  here  and  I  will  show  you  how  they  do  it." 

So  I  ranged  them  in  order,  with  Tom  as  the 
leader. 

"  Now,  Tom,  you  must  say  '  quonk  '  once  in  a 
while,  as  if  to  ask  c  how  are  you  getting  on  there  ?  ' 
and  some  one  must  answer  '  quonk,'  as  if  to  say  '  all 
right,  sir.'  ' 


MIGRATION.  103 

After  we  had  marched  about  a  few  times  I  told 
how  a  man  I  knew  once  saw  a  flock  of  wild  geese 
on  the  Connecticut  River.  While  the  others  were 
feeding,  the  leader  sat  on  a  rock  and  kept  watch. 
When  he  saw  some  one  coming  this  sentinel  said 
"  quonk,"  and  they  all  flew  away. 

"  When  our  summer  birds  are  gone,  then  other 
birds,  who  have  built  their  nests  farther  north,  come 
to  see  us. 

"  The  dear  little  chickadees  come  close  to  us  for 
they  know  we  would  not  hurt  them. 

"  The  tree-sparrows,  that  look  so  much  like  the 
chipping-sparrows,  come  in  flocks. 

"  When  the  snow  is  on  the  ground  the  snowbird 
comes  about  our  doors.  I  dare  say  you  all  know 
how  he  looks.  He  is  dark  gray  above,  the  same 
color  extending  down  his  throat,  and  stopping  in  a 
line  across  the  upper  part  of  the  breast. 

"  Then  there  is  a  terrible  bird  that  sometimes  we 
see  chasing  the  little  birds.  He  is  called  the  butcher- 
bird, or  shrike.  He  is  about  as  large  as  a  robin. 
His  color  is  light  gray  above,  with  black  wings  and 
tail.  Beneath,  he  is  white,  with  fine  dark  lines 
across  his  breast.  His  bill  is  very  strong,  and  is 
bent  down  in  a  hook." 

"  But  why  does  he  chase  the  little  birds,  Miss 
May  ?  "  asked  Johnny. 


104  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

"  Because  he  wants  to  catch  them  and  eat  them." 
"  I  am  going  to  get  a  gun  and  shoot   that   old 
butcher-bird/'  cried  Sidney. 

"  Fortunately  there  are  not  a  great  many  butcher- 
birds, and  there 
are  a  great  many 
small  birds.  Last 
winterlwatched 
one  chasing  a 
hairy  woodpeck- 

BUTCHER-B.RD.  ^         ^     WQod. 

pecker  was  so  large  that  the  butcher-bird  did  not 
dare  fly  right  at  him,  so  they  kept  dodging  each 
other  round  a  tree  trunk.  At  last  the  woodpecker 
tried  to  go  to  the  next  tree,  but  the  enemy  was 
after  him  so  fast  that  he  lit  in  the  path,  while 
the  butcher-bird  perched  on  the  fence  and  watched 
him.  There  they  stayed  till  a  man  came  by  and 
scared  them  both  back  to  the  tree." 

"  And  which  beat  ?  "  asked  Tom. 

"  I  do  not  know.  I  watched  them  for  half  an 
hour,  and  then  I  was  so  cold  I  had  to  leave  them  to 
fight  it  out  by  themselves  ;  but  I  was  almost  sure 
the  shrike  would  not  succeed  in  getting  the  wood- 
pecker." 

"  Oh,  Miss  May,  is  this  truly  the  last  lesson  we 


MIGRATION.  105 

are  going  to  have  ? "  asked  Lois,  as  we  started  for 
our  walk'. 

"  Yes,  I  am  sorry  to  say  it  is  ;  but  you  know  you 
can  come  to  me  at  any  time,  and  tell  me  about  birds 
you  have  seen." 

"  If  this  is  the  last  walk/'  said  Johnny,  "  let's  go 
ever  so  far." 

"  Yeth,  way  down  by  the  Connecticut,  and  up 
through  North  Meadow,  and  around  by  the  chethnut 
trees,"  cried  Sidney. 

"  Chestnuts  aren't  ripe,  goosey,"  said  Tom;  "  there 
haven't  been  any  frosts  yet." 

"  I  am  afraid  that  will  be  too  long  a  walk,"  said 
I ;  "but  we  will  go  into  North  Meadow  if  you  like." 

On  our  way  we  passed  a  spruce  tree  close  by  the 
path,  where  we  heard  a  cheery  voice  say  "  chick-a- 
dee-dee."  We  looked  amongst  the  thick  branches 
and  saw  a  family  of  chickadees. 

"  They  had  a  nest  somewhere  near  by,"  I  said. 
"  I  have  been  seeing  them  all  summer." 

"  I  thought  they  only  came  here  in  the  winter," 
said  Kate. 

"  Oh  yes;  they  sometimes  build  here,  but  not  very 
often." 

In  the  meadow  we  saw  a  great  flock  of  red-wingecj 
blackbirds  in  the  distance. 


106  MY    SATURDAY    BIRD    CLASS. 

"  I  gueth  they  are  bobolinks/'  said  Sidney ;  "  they 
look  brownish." 

"  Oh  no,"  said  Kate  ;  "  they're  just  as  black  as 
they  can  be." 

"  I  think  the  bobolinks  have  already  gone,"  said  I. 

"  I  don't  care,  there's  a  flock  of  brown  birds  now. 
They're  bobolinks  with  their  travelling  dress  on." 
But  these  proved  to  be  meadow-larks. 

These  were  all  the  birds  we  saw.  When  we 
reached  the  chestnut  tree  there  were  some  green 
burrs  on  the  ground,  and  it  took  some  time  to  pound 
them  open,  and  secure  the  unripe  nuts.  Then  we 
went  home  over  the  fields  of  stubbly  grass. 

When  I  bade  my  class  good  by  I  said,  "  Now  you 
have  only  made  a  beginning.  You  must  watch  the 
birds,  and  learn  a  great  deal  more  about  them." 

"Why,  I  thought  we  knew  all  the  birds,"  said 
Johnny. 

"  Oh  no,  indeed,"  said  I ;  "  only  the  most  common 


ones." 


FOE   THE   TEACHER. 

The  male  bobolink,  in  his  winter  dress,  is  similar  to  the 
female.  His  appearance,  then,  is  yellowish  beneath;  two 
stripes  on  the  top  of  the  head  and  the  upper  parts  through- 
out, except  the  back  of  the  neck  and  rump,  dark  brown,  all 
edged  with  brownish  yellow ;  the  sides  sparsely  streaked  with 


MIGRATION.  107 

dark  brown,  and  a  similar  stripe  behind  the  eye ;  three  bands 
of  yellow  on  the  head. 

The  black  and  white  dress  of  the  bobolink  is  only  worn 
during  the  mating  season. 

Another  name  for  the  chickadee  is  black-cap  titmouse.  Its 
color  is  :  back,  brownish  ashy ;  top  of  head  and  throat,  black ; 
sides  of  head  between  them,  white ;  beneath,  whitish ;  brown- 
ish white  on  the  sides ;  wings  and  tail  plain,  more  or  less 
white-edged.  Length,  five  inches. 

This  little  bird  does  incalculable  good  in  destroying  grubs 
concealed  in  tree  buds,  and  eggs  and  larvae  hidden  beneath 
the  bark. 


THE   END. 


SEASIDE    AND    WAYSIDE. 


BOOK   I. 


Illustration  from  No.  i.  —  MR.  AND  MRS.  CRAB. 
CONTENTS. 


LESSON. 

I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XI. 

XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

xvm. 

XIX. 
XX. 

Book  I 


Mr.  and  Mrs.  Crab. 
Mr.  Crab  and  his  House. 
More  about  Mr.  Crab. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Crab  get   New 

Coats. 

What  the  Crab  does. 
Mr.  Crab  and  his  Friends. 
Some  Other  Crabs. 
The  Hermit  Crab. 
The  Crab's  Enemies. 
The  Uses  of  Crabs. 
Mrs.  Wasp  and  her  Home. 
What  Mrs.  Wasp  can  do. 
A  Look  at  Mrs.  Wasp. 
Mrs.  Wasp's  Year. 
Mrs.  Wasp  at  Home. 
Review. 

The  Bee  and  the  Man. 
How  the  Bee  is  Made. 
The  Bee  at  Home. 
The  Bee  Babies. 
95  pages.    32  illustrations. 


LESSON. 

XXI.  The  Bee  War. 

XXII.  The  Bee's  Work. 

XXIII.  The  Wise  Bees. 

XXIV.  Earth  Bees. 
XXV.  Other  Bees. 

XXVI.  More  about  Bees. 

XXVII.  The  Spider  and  his  Dress. 

XXVIII.  The  Spider  at  Home. 

XXIX.  The  Little  Nest. 

XXX.  The  Spider  and  his  Food. 

XXXI.  Very  Queer  Spiders. 

XXXII.  Review. 

XXXIII.  Out  of  Harm's  Way. 

XXXIV.  Shell-Fish. 

XXXV.  The  Story  of  Mr.  Conch. 

XXXVI.  Sea-Babies. 

XXXVII.  More  about  Sea-Babies. 

XXXVIII.  About  Mr.  Drill. 

XXXIX.  The  Story  of  a  War. 

XL.  How  Shell-Fish  Feed. 

XLI.  Review. 
Introduction  price,  25  cts. 


BOOK    II. 


Illustration  from  No.  2.  —  THE  PARASOL  ANTS. 


CONTENTS. 


LESSON. 

LESSON. 

I.   A  Look  at  an  Ant. 

XXV. 

II.   The  Life  of  an  Ant. 

XXVI. 

III.  The  Ant's  Home. 

XXVII. 

IV.    The  Ants  at  Home- 

XXXVIII. 

V.    The  Ants  on  a  Trip. 

XXIX. 

VI.   The  Farmer  Ants. 

XXX. 

VII.    Ants  and  their  Trades. 

XXXI. 

VUI.   The  Slave  Ants. 

XXXII. 

IX.   Wonder  Ants. 

XXXIII. 

X.   The  Ways  of  Ants. 

XXXIV. 

XI.   Mr.  Worm  and  his  Family. 

XXXV. 

XII.   The  Earth-worm  at   Home. 

XIII.   Mr.  Worm  at  Work. 

XXXVI. 

XIV.    Mr.   Worm's   Cottage  by  the 

XXXVII. 

Sea. 

XXXVIII. 

XV.    Mr.  Worm  at  Home. 

XXXIX. 

XVI.   A  Look  at  a  House-Fly 

XL. 

XVII.    How  to  Look  at  a  Fly. 

XVIII.    Mrs.  Fly  and  her  Foes. 

XLI. 

XIX.  Of  what  Use  are  Flies. 

XLII. 

XX.   A  Swarm  of  Flies. 

XLIII 

XXI.   Some  Queer  Flies. 

XLIV. 

XXII.  In  Armor  Clad. 

XXIII.   When       Mr.      Beetle     was 

XLV. 

Young. 

XXIV.    How  to  Learn  about  Beetles. 

BOOK  II.     184  pages.     39  illustratioi 

The  Rose  Beetle. 

Princes  and  Giants. 

The  Little  Sexton. 

The  Story  of  the  Stag  Beetle. 

Mr.  Beetle  Seeks  for  a  Home. 

The  Little  Water-Men. 

Whirligig  Beetles. 

What  a  Fisherman  Told. 

Mr.  Barnacle  and  his  Son. 

A  Fishing  Party. 

A  Last  Look  at  Mr.  Bar- 
nacle. 

Flowers  of  the  Sea. 

The  Life  of  a  Jelly-Fish. 

Sea-Stars. 

A  Sea-Change. 

The  Star-Fish  with  an  Over- 
coat. 

The  Flying  Flowers. 

Under  the  Water. 

A  Happy  Change. 

The  Dragon-Fly  and  his 
Cousins. 

The  Wings  of  the  Dragon. 

Review  Lessons. 


35  cts- 

a 


BOOK     III. 


Illustration  from  No.  3.  —BEAKS. 


CONTENTS. 


LESSON. 

L  The  Great  Mother. 
II.   The  Earth's  Eldest  Child. 

III.  A  Look  at  a  Plant. 

IV.  A  Year  in  a  Plant's  Life. 
V.   The  Growth  of  Plants. 

VI.   The  Food  of  Plants. 
VII.    Seeds  and  Leaves. 
VIII.  The  Color  of  Plants. 
IX.   The  Motion  of  Plants. 
X.   Plants  and  their  Partners. 
XL   Air,  Water,  and  Sand  Plants. 
XXII.    Plants  that  eat  Animals. 
XIII.   Weather  Prophet  Plants. 
XIV.    Plant  Clocks. 
XV.   The  School  Cabinet. 
XVI.  The  Old  Man  of  the  Meadow. 
XVII.  The  Life  of  the  Old  Man. 
XVIII.    The  Robber  Cousin. 
XIX.    The  Merry  Cousins. 
XX.    Queer  Cricket. 
XIX.   Other  Hoppers. 
XXII.   A  Real  Live  Fairy. 
XXIII.  The  Child  of  the  Day. 
XXIV.  Life  Among  Snow  and  Roses. 


LESSON. 

XXV.  Joseph's  Coat. 

XXVI.  Cousin  Moth. 

XXVII.  The  Child  of  the  Night. 

XXVIII.  The  Bird. 

XXIX.  Beaks  and  Claws. 

XXX.  Trees,  Ground,  and    Water 

Birds. 

XXXI.  On  the  Wing. 

XXXII.  Nest  Building. 

XXXIII.  The  Bird  at  Home. 

XXXIV.  Birds  of  Song. 
XXXV.  The  Other  Partner. 

XXXVI.  A  Brigade  of  Birds. 

XXXVII.  The  Birds  in  the  Woods. 

XXXVIII.  The  Birds  in  the  House. 

XXXIX.  The  Lost  Birds. 

XL.  The  Fin  Family 

XLI.  Outside  and  Inside. 

XLII.  Where  they  live. 

XLIII.  How  they  Behave. 

XLIV.  Fry  and  School. 

XLV.  Scales  and  Teeth. 

XLVI.  Big  and  Little  Brothers. 


BOOK  III.     300  pages.     29  illustrations.     50  cts. 

4 


BOOK    IV. 


Illustration  from  No.  4. —THE  REIGN  OF  THE  PINE. 


CONTENTS. 


I.    Earth  Building. 
II.    The  First  Continent. 

XXVII. 
XXVIII. 

III.    The  Age  of  Crabs  and  Corals. 
IV.    The  Pines  and  the  Reptiles. 
V.    The  Palm  and  the  Man. 

XXIX. 
XXX. 

VI.    The  Starry  Heavens. 
VII.    A   Fragment  of  the  Milky 
Way. 
VIII.    Plan  and  Progression. 
IX.    The  King  of  the  Day. 
X.    The  Queen  of  the  Night. 
XL    Vanished  Fauna. 

XXXI. 
XXX  J  I. 
XXXIII. 
XXXIV. 

XXXV. 
XXXVI. 

XII.    A  Mountain  of  Fossils. 

XXXVII. 

XIII.    Written  in  Rocks. 

XXXVIII. 

XIV.    Footprints  in  the  Sand. 
XV.    The  Winter  of  the  World. 

XXXIX. 

XVI.    Fossil  Crabs. 

XL. 

XVII.    Stone-Fish  and  Stone-Lilies. 

XLI. 

XVIII.    Long-Buried  Reptiles. 
XIX.    Birds  of  other  Ages. 
XX.    The  Early  Mammals. 
XXI.    Very  Old  Families. 
XXII.    The  Marvel  in  Mail. 

XLII. 
XLIII. 
XLIV. 
XLV. 
XLVI. 

XXIII.    The  Wonderful  Builder. 

XLVII. 

XXIV.    An  Opossum  Hunt. 
XXV.    A  New  Fashion  of  Pappoose. 
XXVI.    Low  Down  in  the  Scale. 

XLVIII. 
XLIX. 
L. 

BOOK  IV.    370  pages.    28  illustrations.    60  cents. 

5 

With  a  Duck's  Bill. 

In  Australian  Rivers. 

A    Walk    Among    Wonder 

Trees. 

Still  in  the  Wonder  Grove. 
A  Noisy  Family. 
The  Frogs'  Cousin. 
Salamanders. 
A    Citizen    of    the    Marsh 

Lands. 

A  Stranger  from  Mexico. 
Some  Merry  Little  Friends. 
The  Ancient  Monster. 
El  Lagarto. 
Wiser  than  any  Beast  of  the 

Field. 

Our  Common  Enemy. 
With  a  House  on  His  Back. 
A  Real  Live  Mermaid. 
Great  Whales  Also. 
A  Seal-Skin  Cloak. 
Flying  Mammals. 
Order  out  of  Confusion. 
Nibblers. 
Gnawers. 
The  Thick  Skins. 
The  Ruminants. 


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Picture  Problems.      By  Miss  H.  A.  LUDDINGTON, 

Principal  of  Training  School,  Pawtucket,  R.  I. ;  formerly  Teacher  of  Methods  and  Train- 
ing Teacher  in  Primary  Department  of  State  Normal  School,  New  Britain,  Conn., 
and  Training  Teacher  in  Cook  County  Normal  School,  Normal  Park,  111.  70  colored 
cards,  4x5  inches,  printed  on  both  sides,  arranged  in  9  sets,  6  to  to  cards  in  each  set, 
with  card  of  directions.  Retail  price,  65  cents. 

{Mathematical  Teaching  and  its  [Modern  {Methods. 

By  TRUMAN   HENRY  SAFFC 
Mass.     Paper.     47  pages.     I 

The  New  Arithmetic. 


By  TRUMAN   HENRY   SAFFORU,  Ph.  D.,   Professor  of  Astronomy,   Williams   College, 
Mass.     Paper.     47  pages.     Retail  price,  25  cents. 


By  300  authors.     Edited  by  SEYMOUR  EATON,  with  Preface  by  T.  H.  SAFFORD,  Pro 
lessor  of  Astronomy,  Williams  College,  Mass.     Introduction  price,  75  cents. 


D,    C.    HEATH    &    CO.,    Publishers, 

BOSTON,   NEW  YORK,    AND  CHICAGO. 


English   Language. 


Hyde's  Lessons  in  English,  Book  I.  For  the  lower  grades.  Con- 
tains exercises  for  reproduction,  picture  lessons,  letter  writing, 
uses  of  parts  of  speech,  etc $  .35 

Hyde's  Lessons  in  English,  Book  II.       For  Grammar  schools. 

Has  enough  technical  grammar  for  correct  use  of  language  .        .50 

Hyde's  Lessons  in  English,  Book  II.  with  Supplement.     Has 

in  addition  to  the  above,  118  pages  of   technical  grammar        .       .60 
Supplement  bound  alone 30 

Hyde's  Derivation  of  Words 15 

Mathew's  English  Grammar  with  Selections 70 

Buckbee's  Primary  Word  Book 25 

Badlam's  Suggestive  Lessons  in  Language.     Being  Part  I.  and 

appendix  of  Suggestive  Lessons  in  Language  and  Reading  .        .       .50 

Smith's  Studies  in  Nature,  and  Language  Lessons.  A  combi- 
nation of  object  lessons  with  language  work  .50  Part  I  bound 
separately 25 

Meiklejohn's  English  Language.     Treats  salient  features  with  a 

master's  skill  and  with  the  utmost  clearness  and  simplicity  .         .      1.20 

Meiklejohn's  English  Grammar.    Also  composition,  versification, 

paraphrasing,  etc.      For  high  schools  and  colleges         .         .  .80 

Meiklejohn's  History  of  the  English  Language.     78  pages.    Part 

III.  of  English  Language,  above 30 

Williams'  Composition  and  Rhetoric  by  Practice.  For  high 
school  and  college.  Combines  the  smallest  amount  of  theory  with 
an  abundance  of  practice.  Revised  edition 90 

Strang's  Exercises  in  English.     Examples  in  Syntax,  Accidence, 

and  Style  for  criticism  and  correction.     Revised  edition      .         .         .45 

Hempl's  Old  English  Grammar  and  Reader 25 

Huffcutt's  English  in  the  Preparatory  School.  Presents  as  prac- 
tically as  possible  some  of  the  advanced  methods  of  teaching  Eng- 
lish grammar  and  composition  in  the  secondary  schools  .  .  .25 

Woodward's  Study  of  English.     Discusses  English  teaching  from 

primary  school  to  high  collegiate  work 25 

Genung's  Study  of  Rhetoric.    Shows  the  most  practical  discipline 

of  students  for  the  making  of  literature 25 

In  addition  to  the  above  we  have  text-books  in  English  and  American 
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D.  C.  HEATH  &  CO.,  PUBLISHERS. 

BOSTON,  NEW  YORK  &  CHICAGO. 


READING. 

Wrighfs  Nature  Readers  :   Sea-side  and  Way-side. 

Boards.  Illustrated.  No.  I.,  95  pages.  Price,  25  cents.  No.  II.,  184  pages.  Price, 
35  cents.  No.  III.,  300  pages.  Price,  50  cents.  No.  IV.,  ooo  pages.  Price,  60  cents. 

Designed  for  schools  and  families.  Intended  to  awaken  in  children  a  taste  for  scientific 
study,  to  develop  their  powers  of  attention,  and  to  encourage  observation,  by  directing  their 
minds  to  the  living  things  that  meet  their  eyes  on  the  road-side,  at  the  sea-shore,  and  about 
their  homes. 

The  First  Reader  treats  of  crabs,  wasps,  spiders,  bees,  and  some  mollusks.  The  Second 
Reader  treats  of  ants,  flies,  earth-worms,  beetles,  barnacles,  star-fish,  and  dragon-flies.  The 
Third  Reader  has  lessons  in  plant  life,  grasshoppers,  butterflies,  and  birds.  The  Fourth 
Reader  treats  of  world  life  in  its  different  aspects  and  periods. 

Badlams    Suggestive    Lessons    in    Language    and 

Reading.     A  Manual  for  Primary  Teachers.    Cloth,  square.   283  pages.   Price,  $1.50. 

A  thoroughly  helpful  book,  the  outgrowth  of  a  real  experience,  and  of  such  a  suggestive 
character  that  its  lessons  cannot  fail  in  their  adaptability  to  the  various  grades. 

The  first  part  gives  Outline  Lessons  for  Oral  Work,  specimens  of  stories  told  by  chil- 
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The  second  part  is  devoted  to  Suggestive  Lessons  for  blackboard  reading  and  word- 
building.  The  plan  embraces  the  best  known  features  of  the  various  methods  of  teaching. 

Primer.    In  the  series  "  Stepping  Stones  to  Reading." 


Illustrated.     Boards.     131  pages.     Price,  25  cents. 

Its  main  features  are  its  simplicity,  variety,  and  gradual  development  of  the  lessons. 

First    Reader.     Illustrated.    Boards.   170  pages.   Price,  30  cts. 


Follows  and  develops  the  general  plan  of  the  Primer. 

Fuller  s  Ilhistrated  Primer,  illustrated.  Boards.  io3Pages.  25cts. 

This  book  presents  the  "  Word  Method  "  in  an  attractive  form  for  little  children. 

Fullers  Phonic  Drill  Charts. 

Three  Charts.   Manilla  paper.    30  x  ^2  inches.    Price,  unmounted,  $1.25  ;  mounted,  $2.25. 
These  charts  have  been  prepared  for  the  purpose  of  exercising  pupils  in  making  the 
elementary  sounds  and  in  combining  these  to  form  syllables  and  words 

Smiths  Reading  and  Speaking.  Familiar  Talks  to  Young  M«n 

•who  -would  Speak  well  in  Public.    Cloth.     171  pages.    Price,  60  cents. 
A  collection  of  suggestions  to  would-be  speakers,  consisting  of  informal  talks  on  matters 
•f  importance  to  all  young  men. 

Readers  for  Home  and  School. 

A  series  of  volumes  to  be  edited  by  Professor  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON,  of  Harvard 
University,  and  Miss  KATE  STEPHENS. 

This  series  is  to  be  of  material  from  the  standard  imaginative  literature  of  the  English 
language.  It  will  draw  freely  upon  the  treasury  of  favorite  stories,  poems,  and  songs  with 
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_  [/«  preparation. 

D,  0,  HEATH  &  CO  ,  Publishers,  Boston,  New  York,  Chicago,  and  London, 


Why  should  Teacher  s 


"°  man  can  stanct  high  In  any  profession  who   is  not  familiar 
witn  its  hjstory  and  literature. 

9      Rerun  eo  '*  saves  time  which  might  be  wasted  in  trying  experiments  that 
£..    UCLUUSC  oeen  tried  and  found  useiess, 


Compayre'S  History  Of  Pedagogy.    "  The  best  and  most  comprehensive 

history  of  Education  in  English."  —  Dr.  G.  S.  HALL  ......      $i-75 

Compayre'S  Lectures  On  Teaching".  "  The  best  book  in  existence  on 

the  theory  and  practice  of  Education."  —  Supt.  MACALLISTER,  Philadelphia.  .  1.75 
Gill's  System  Of  Education.  "  It  treats  ably  of  the  Lancaster  and  Bell 

movement  in  Education  —  a  very  important  phase."  —  Dr.  W.  T.  HARRIS.  .  1.25 
BadestOCk'S  Habit  in  Education.  "  It  will  prove  a  rare  '  find  '  to  teach- 

ers who  are  seeking  to  ground  themselves  in  the  philosophy  of  their  art."  — 

E.  H.  RUSSELL,  Worcester  Normal.    .  .......        0.75 

Rousseau's  Emile.  "  Perhaps  the  most  influential  book  ever  written  on  the 

subject  of  Education."  —  R.  H.  QUICK  .........        0.90 

Pestalozzi's  Leonard  and  Gertrude.  "  If  we  except  '  Emile'  only,  no 

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'  Leonard  and  Gertrude.  '"  —  The  Nation.  .......        0.90 

Richter's  Levana  ;  or  the  Doctrine  of  Education.  "A  spirited 

and  scholarly  book."  —  Prof.  W.  H.  PAYNH  ........         1.40 

Rosmini'S  Method  in  Education.  "  The  most  important  pedagogical 

work  ever  written."  —  THOMAS  DAVIDSON  ........         1.50 

Malleson's  Early  Training  of  Children.  "  The  best  book  for  mothers 

I  ever  read."  —  ELIZABETH  P.  PEABODY.          .......        0.75 

Hall's  Bibliography  of  Pedagogical  Literature.    Covers  every 

department  of  Education.      .         .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .         1.50 

Peabody's  Home,  Kindergarten  and  Primary  School  Educa- 

tion.    "The  best  book  outside  of  the  Bible  I  ever  read."  —  A  LEADING 

TEACHER  ...............        i.oo 

Newsholme'S  School  Hygiene.  Already  in  use  in  the  leading  training 

colleges  in  England.       ............        0.75 

DeGarmo's  Essentials  of  Method.  "  It  has  as  much  sound  thought  to 

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Springfield,  Mass.          ............        0.65 

Hall's  Methods  Of  Teaching  History.  "  Its  excellence  and  helpful- 

ness ought  to  secure  it  many  readers."  —  The  Nation  ......         1.50 

Seidel'S  Industrial  Education.  "  It  answers  triumphantly  all  objections 

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HAM,  Chicago  .....  '     .........        0.90 

Badlam's  Suggestive  Lessons  on  Language  and  Reading. 

"The  book  is  all  that  it  claims  to  be  and  more.     It  abounds  in  material  that 

will  be  of  service  to  the  progressive  teacher."  —  Supt.  DUTTON,  New  Haven.         1.50 

Redway's  Teachers'  Manual  of  Geography.    "  Its  hints  to  teachers 

are  invaluable,  while  its  chapters  on  '  Modern  Facts  and  Ancient  Fancies  '  will 
be  a  revelation  to  many."—  ALEX.    E.    FRYE,  Author  of  "The  Child  in 
Nature."        ..............        0.65 

Nichols'    Topics    in    Geography.      "Contains  excellent  hints  and  sug- 

gestions of  incalculable  aid  to  school  teachers."  —  Oakland  (Cal.)  Tribune.     .        0.65 


D.  C.  HEATH  &  CO.,  Publishers, 

BOSTON,    NEW  YORK  AND  CHICAGO. 


XB  36085 


5M.J48 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


